CERAMICS (1983)
This is a sampling of ceramics I made at Sheridan College School of Crafts and Design, 1980-83.
I was interested in the human figure and its relationship to ceramics historically—for instance the naming of the parts of the vessel: the foot, the body, the shoulder, the neck—as well as with concepts of domesticity. With my Figure Pots, I set myself the challenge of making ceramic vessels that approached human scale. I also thought about my own body being a mould to make vessels, as with my Knee and Elbow Pots. And I used the ceramic medium to explore pattern making on the surface of the clay vessels I crafted.
I wanted to bring this work into view because it connects with threads of interest which have continued over the years and decades of my practice. Immersion in process, the relationship of the body to artwork, the idea of pattern as expressive decoration, and the pushing of scale explored here created a foundation for my sensibility in my later more conceptual works.