ABOUT ME
Originally trained in social science, I first studied visual art and installation at TAFE in Sth Australia in 2009. Whilst there, I studied sculpture, mould making, slip casting and press moulding, but I didn't begin working with clay until the end of 2012 when my partner and I relocated to Melbourne for work.
I finished my post graduate certificate in Visual Art (Ceramics) by research at ANU under the supervision of Greg Daly and later Lia Tacjnar. At that time my practice revolved around mixing traditional and experimental ceramic techniques. This often included adding my own coloured grogs and homemade rocks with a variety of different melting points to my clay bodies and glazes, I am currently undertaking a post graduate course in contemporary art at the VCA at University of Melbourne.
Much of my recent work is an attempt to challenge the rigid anti-intellectualised craft orthodoxies I see currently in the Australian ceramics community. The starting point for the work was the desire to make pieces which are essentially a play on traditional pottery, but which stretch traditional craft boundaries by over emphasizing certain characteristics and using non-functional surfaces that render the work bright, ‘plasticky’ and gaudy – pottery in drag. Lately, the work has started morphing away from pottery into more abstract forms, which I find more satisfying. With my ceramic work, I draw inspiration from pop art – bright colour, boldly used – and I use fat viscous glazes and precious gold lustres to both give the pieces a sense of luscious movement, but also to emphasise their gaudy non-functional state.
Originally trained in social science, I first studied visual art and installation at TAFE in Sth Australia in 2009. Whilst there, I studied sculpture, mould making, slip casting and press moulding, but I didn't begin working with clay until the end of 2012 when my partner and I relocated to Melbourne for work.
I finished my post graduate certificate in Visual Art (Ceramics) by research at ANU under the supervision of Greg Daly and later Lia Tacjnar. At that time my practice revolved around mixing traditional and experimental ceramic techniques. This often included adding my own coloured grogs and homemade rocks with a variety of different melting points to my clay bodies and glazes, I am currently undertaking a post graduate course in contemporary art at the VCA at University of Melbourne.
Much of my recent work is an attempt to challenge the rigid anti-intellectualised craft orthodoxies I see currently in the Australian ceramics community. The starting point for the work was the desire to make pieces which are essentially a play on traditional pottery, but which stretch traditional craft boundaries by over emphasizing certain characteristics and using non-functional surfaces that render the work bright, ‘plasticky’ and gaudy – pottery in drag. Lately, the work has started morphing away from pottery into more abstract forms, which I find more satisfying. With my ceramic work, I draw inspiration from pop art – bright colour, boldly used – and I use fat viscous glazes and precious gold lustres to both give the pieces a sense of luscious movement, but also to emphasise their gaudy non-functional state.