Gotta Catch 'em, 2012, Metropolitan Gallery
Decorative arts display social status and reflect a culture’s priorities and values, as well as being utilitarian objects. These craft objects can become icons of a culture--functioning as symbols of national and personal identity. I am interested in this ability of pottery to speak for their owner, maker and culture.
Research into pottery traditions is essential to my studio practice. This research takes the form of reading anthropological and archaeological studies, art history and ceramic books, as well as careful examination of historical pottery during museum visits.
Gotta Catch ‘em grew out of my desire to fill my house with reflections of the amazing objects I have encountered in my research. Each piece is made from memory of a pot that I have seen, and in some cases handled, felt and smelt. Unlike Napoleonic and Victorian collectors of the great European porcelain rooms, I have been collecting a mental library of pottery. Gotta Catch ‘em creates a physical space for my obsessive collecting.
