The focus of my work has its origins in my first encounter with clay, which happened at a very fragile and disorienting time in my life. My sixteen year old daughter and myself had just moved to a new country after my mom’s passing. It was a time of great loss and letting go and, at the same time, I was entering a new decade and heartened by the promise of something new as a result of immersing ourselves in a radically unfamiliar culture. Within a few months of moving to Indonesia, I stumbled across the internationally renowned Gaya Ceramic Arts Center by ‘chance’ and signed up for an introductory class. For the next two years in Indonesia I devoutly attended open studio and participated in workshops by Hillary Kane, Candone Wharton, Shozo Michikawa, Lorna Meadon, and Alessandro Gallo.

Almost ten years after my first introductory class…

I’ve had my hands in clay consistently and have come to see that working with clay has been a way of exploring my fascination with change and wayfinding in this evolutionary time of great turning and epistemological revolution. Through dialogue with clay, living close to the land and Embodied Imagination® praxis, I am learning to listen for whispers of new ways of being human in a world of inspiration.

I keep my backyard shed ‘lab’ simple and work by the creek when weather permits. Sourcing wild clay and handbuilding with minimal tools (pinching, coiling, sculpting) allow for a sweet reciprocity and intimacy with the material. I create dynamic surfaces by burnishing, applying few select minerals and, most importantly, letting the alchemy between earth, fire, and air do their work. My sculptures are either pit or wood fired to allow a different level of expertise to take over once the form is complete. I often mend rare fractures and cracks with metals to accentuate imperfection and sometimes leave forms unfired to dissolve back into land, sea and sky.

I aspire to a phenomenological orientation and am currently researching, by means of my studies with Embodied Imagination®, what that means in terms of my relationship with art and ‘art’ist.

Portrait by Kasia Gatkowska