I have decided to write an independent statement for each major medium I work in. This is a fragment of my first draft for ceramics:
| I work with clay for the simple joy of working with clay. My work is very much related to a balance or harmony between characteristics. Working on the wheel allows me to begin each piece from center, a common starting place, and a place where anything is possible. Clay is a very flexible medium, I can make it be tight and confined, such as with my vases and bottles, or I can make it wide and revealing as with my many bowls. Each piece has a different meaning to me. Everything I create has some purpose as a vessel. These vessels hold things, and give things a place to exist. My bottles, with their small openings, are places of great security, on the brink of confinement, but not quite. My bowls are the opposite, they are open and inviting, seeking to form a relationship with a person. My bowls are never identical, most are not even similar, these are bowls to belong to someone. To me, bowls are involved in a possessive relationship. My bowls do not belong in dinnerware sets, they belong to a person. |
