“My relationship with clay is an ongoing conversation. I tell it where to move, how to look, and it softly responds, sometimes in agreement, but not in others. In early years I would force it, a dictatorship with no room for compromises. But I slowly found how to breathe within my work. Now I find creating brings a gentleness out of me, showing the engaging power of subtleties. My forms are soft and playful, telling you where to touch, where to look. A pattern hides under the belly of a curve, or dances quietly around a rim. I’ve been enamored with texture for a while now. I am compelled by the voice it has, and the interactive quality it presents. It invites you in, asking you to hold it, to use it. I’m interested in the qualities of repetition, how a loud mark alone can become a soft drumbeat, comforting with its rhythm.
Working within the parameters of function, I welcome the restriction. It directs me and challenges me, allowing me to take something familiar, and sculpt it to my own aesthetic desires. I am influenced by the romanticized atmosphere the kitchen creates; of family meals and childhood memories, of beauty in the everyday encounters. It’s such an intimate space, inviting you to embrace it, and allowing the transcendent qualities of a pot to embark.”
–Joanna Buyert
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