At school, art was my favourite subject. Not so much for the creations I produced, more for the peace it gave me. Art for me has always been a form of meditation.
When I was 14 our teacher made a huge slab of Plaster of Paris which she broke up into pieces. She gave us one each and I remember holding the shape I had been given and, rather than starting right away, I found myself looking at it carefully trying to see what it wanted to be. In the end it became a mythical animal with a gentle face and a huge antler that curved around the entire top. Creating this piece and working on it as it emerged mattered so much to me. Our art lessons were only an hour at a time twice a week, with long days in between filled with normal less engaging (to me) subjects, but I thought about my plaster carving all the time and I longed to get back to it. I loved the feel of the smooth plaster in my hands and the soft noise it made when I carved into it with my blunt school knife. When it was finished I missed it. I didn’t want to stop. I was proud of the final result but the real joy had been in the making of it.
Creating is a process and it has to be done in stages, but for me, once I have formed a shape in my hands in its most scrappy early state it is imprinted in my mind and I can’t wait to get back to it to work on it. When I am under pressure to make specific pieces I have to work hard not to lose this feeling or my strong connection to the clay. It is annoying but it no longer surprises me when the shape I am intending to form just won’t appear. Art has to be a heartfelt collaboration between the maker and the material; it is just so much deeper than knocking something up!
You can see this beautiful relationship in work that resonates. It doesn’t have to be perfect. The tips of finger prints left at the base of a piece showing where it was carefully held by the maker when it was dipped in the glaze; the slightly irregular pinching of the rim of a jug or bowl made to be used, not necessarily admired. The rough trimming on a dish that is now your favourite, not for the way it looks, but for the way it feels in your hands. I always like these pieces best because in all of them we can feel and see the joy in the making, as well as the joy of the maker.