Who is Sig Stone?
Signe Stone is my grandmother’s name. She passed when I was very young. I remember painting pumpkins together, brushing my teeth in her bathroom, and reading Bears in the Night. When I was a baby, she was the only person aside from my mother I would let hold me. She had severe Rheumatoid Arthritis, rendering her hands non-functional. This is why I know each pinch I create in the clay is a miracle.
I navigate this world with my hands outstretched, trusting my fingertips before my eyes. My hands allow me to create beautiful and strange objects; they allow me to capture some essence of my being that is unwordable and share it with the world. Sometimes I imagine myself as a pair of disembodied hands, completely autonomous and self-sufficient, floating through space making pinch pots all day. They do not need a body; no, they need only to create, create, create - a tempting daydream. But my legs and my lungs and my mind and my shoulders and my intestines and my spine and my hips and all the other parts of my being find themselves offended by this vision. Most of all, my heart, where my grandma lives, holding me as a baby with her gnarled, beautiful hands. She grounds me; she reminds me to be grateful when I forget how incredibly lucky I am.
Who would I be without my hands? I would be kind and gentle. I would be resilient and brave. I would be a friend, a sister, a daughter.
About the Artist
Chloe Dalton is a Chicago-based artist and educator currently focused on sculptural and functional ceramics. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024 with an emphasis on ceramic sculpture.
sigstonestudio@gmail.com
Established 2026