Existence Is Fertile was gestated through the COVID years.

And it was grounded in the concepts of Change and Growth, conditions that humanity has wrestled with since we’ve had language to express how we felt about the things that have happened to us.

My work became an exploration of these twin themes through ceramics and the language of natural forms.

Going deeper…

The architecture and patterns of growth in the natural world around us can broaden the perspectives we share of Growth and Change.

Can they can help us question the positivity or negativity we assign to an alteration in our circumstances?

Can we challenge our arbitrary categorisation of Growth as simply a Change which is positive?

Is “positive” sometimes a matter of interpretation?

The conclusion I came to was this:

An open mind can view any transformation in its entirety, allowing that there may be an inherent mixture of both positive and negative; the black, white and grey.

We don’t want to have minds so open “our brains fall out”, but by challenging ourselves to make richer, more broad-minded judgements on changes in ourselves or our circumstances, we may find that there are many more situations which offer us a chance for empowerment in the same way Growth, as we might narrowly define it, does.

How does this unfold in ceramics? I guess we just have to get down to earth!

Simple forms “grow” and unfold and by chronicling the process in the one artwork I can make something of beauty that contains births and deaths, and new beginnings. Seeds become new leaves and flowers, to die back to leave new seeds. But all have an unending connection from each to the next - it’s in their DNA.

Each artform begins with an idea, is formed with clay, fired to become stone, stimulates a new idea, which is then formed with clay, fired, and so it goes on.

Based on Organic systems, six-pointed stars can become flowers, six points become six sides to form hexagons, which grow out to branch, individuating from browns to blues and peaches and reds. These colours then generate the seeds and leaves and mounds, which unfold like mushrooms to become bowls, vessels - the artistic expression of that which “contains”, the perfect form for the pregnant, the development of whatever will emerge next!

I hope this playful exploration brings you some moments of joy.