I am obsessed with process and the alchemy of materials. In my work, clay and fire conspire together to allow me to make vessels that are themselves alchemical containers. These evoke caves, places to go inside, dark spaces for transformation. Richly textured surfaces are intentionally tactile. They reference spaces that echo with collective memories of ocean, tide, sky and landscape.

I want to provoke a tactile thoughtfulness about place, home, connection, or disconnection, and relationship to self and the land. Handbuilt ceramic forms invite reflection and a (re)turning to a state of embeddedness within the living world.

Process
Drawing on memory and feeling for place and what might be re-membered in the psyche, I am inspired by the shoreline, by the rugged interaction between land and sea and by life in the deep ocean. Like the unconscious, the deep ocean and underland remain little known, not often visited realms. This is the realm of imagination, generativity and tremendous creativity.

My work is hand-built from grogged stoneware clay, handmade porcelain paperclay or foraged wild clays. In a conversation with ocean and rock the clay takes up organic and geologically inspired forms and textures; crashing surf, weathered shells, tiny sea creatures, rock, tidal currents and vast skies

Each piece undergoes a process of layering different slips, metal oxides, glazes and multiple firings; cobalt, jade and turquoise of the ocean, black and brown of the rock, blue and grey of sky, and white of cloud forms. The result is a richly textured surface referencing coastline, shore, rock pool, mountain and cave. Each piece, intentionally tactile, rough in places, echoes a collective memory of ocean, tide, sky and landscape.