Artist's Statement

This work is the culmination of technique, intent and invention. Since 1997 I have used the metaphor of the boat (vessel: container/protector) as an expressive vehicle. Individual pieces are interconnected in an ever-evolving series, as new ideas develop from the working process itself. All of the preceeding work serves to inform and enrich what is a pursuit of excellence and it is this effort to improve and refine that then becomes the impetus for new work.

Idea and theme unite to create forms that echo the natural world around me. Colour, form and surface are synthesised in a layering up of content and meaning. The integration of the Boat as the human made "cultural object" with the organic form as the grown "natural object", provides a format through which I explore issues of duality. This is expressed in individual pieces by the dichotomic nature of the inside/outside and the juxtaposition of soft/hard. Within this concept, memory traces are triggered; birth/death, renewal, rhythmic change. Memory, history, gender and personal narrative condition each individual's access to the layers of meaning as the viewer becomes a participant.

The transformative power inherent in this "ancient Ur craft" of clay, mimics the cyclical and transformative nature of the world we live in, and is echoed in the organic quality of the forms. The idea of hope and regeneration infuses pieces that appear elemental. A deep reverence for the natural world, combined with an interest in ancient earth-based religions informs this work, for the boat is the feminine symbol of passage and salvation the world over.

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