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ABOUT
ME
POTTER - MUSICIAN - REALTOR
The Potter With As Many Styles As There Are Trees In A Forest and
Voices In A Choir
A Studio potter who makes pottery that
make you giggle.
I like to think I bring life to art and art to life, making the
everyday a little brighter.
You can use my pots everyday, bringing a bit of whimsy into your
life!
Working with clay is a remarkable joy
for me. The first time I sat a wheel in an old farm house, I knew
that this was a medium that just ... fit. I don't know if it was
the mess that I loved, or the warm wet clay oozing through my fingers,
or the way that a very personal conversation transpires between
clay and artist.
I learned early on that while the artists
wants to say something, the clay also has say something to say,
and there is a need for mutual respect.
For more than 15 years I have been a
potter, selling pots at stores such as the AGO gift shop, The Gardine
Museum of Ceramic Art, The MicMichael Gallery, and The Guild Shop
and Arts on King ( in Toronto, Canada).
STYLES/SERIES
My styles have many faces, from Naked Ladies, which celebrate women
of all shapes and sizes. I was asked many years ago to create some
pottery for International Womens Day. Although I take this event
very seriously, I don't tend to take myself all that seriously,
and thus, these happy, naive like doodles of naked women, arms outstretched
in celebration we born.
There are Dancing Tulips which I saw
while on a trip to Holland in tulip season. Some of these pieces
have a cross hatch design on them as well, symbolizing the many
baskets those who love to garden, usually have for picking flowers
and bringing them in tenderley, ready for cutting and arranging
for self pleasure and display.
Fusion is a series of blending many swatches
of colour with big brush strokes, while Desert Moon, Midnight Black
and Midnight Forest are all quiet, rich with hues of blues and dark
green as the predominant colour. I often scratch through one colour
on the pot to reveal another colour beneath ( scrafitto), even if
the colour difference is subtle, it is a reminder, that there is
always something which lies beneath the surface. These pots ask
of the viewer to take time, to touch and to hold the pot, to see
the many complex layers that all there, albeit, quiet and subtle
and not completely obvious on first glance. This is akin to my personal
growth and self exploration, which is not about the loud vivatious,
cheerful look of the white series of doodled pots, but an understanding
that we as humans, are much more complex and if we allow others
in, or allow ourselves the time and space needed, we can uncover
some of what lies beneath the masks we often choose or by some default,
tend to wear. This series ranges in colour.
My Smoke Fired and Modern Primitives
reflect the quiet, introspective part of me. There is something
fascinating to me about the ability to learn of past civilizations
- how they lived, where they lived, what they did, etc. by finding
shards of pottery in excavation sites. Pottery is of the earth and
uses elements from the earth to create both articles of beauty and
function. I guess this is why I love the smoke fired pieces... In
the process of making them, I imagine a more primitive time, and
quieter time, and a more gentle time.
On a recent trip to India, I met with
a potter in a very small rural village, who makes water vessels
(among other things) for his entire commmunity.
By pounding and shaping a large piece of clay with no wheel or electricity,
he forms a beautiful vessel, firing it in the ground with smoldering
smoke for several days, until the vessel is 'baked' and ready for
the villagers. My pots are much easier to make as I use a wheel
rotating hundreds of time per minute to assist me.
Does travel ever help to give one perspective!!!
I am glad that you have found your way
here. I hope you have the opportunity to get your hands on some
wet clay soon and play... play .... play!
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