Although my training was in fine art, it was not my primary career. I have though, continued with my art as a hobby all my life and became a practicing artist since 2003. During this time I have painted Murals, Paintings and Firescreens to order mostly. I have exhibited in London, where I used to have a studio and in Oxfordshire. In 2013, I took part in Oxford Art Weeks, with a Private View and an Open Studio. Recently I have been at Banbury and Bicester College where I have been working in ceramics. This is not thrown pottery, but abstract sculpture.  Working in 3D has given me a new form of communication which has opened  up a new type of creativity for me. Ceramics is an entirely different medium to what I have previously worked in. It uses clay from the earth — Earthstone and porcelain, which must be manipulated by hand using different skills than before.

This has given my work a new direction – away from the pictorial or life-like towards something more fundamental and imaginary. Working in a new medium brings it’s challenges, but  an exciting part of being an artist is facing the unknown and coming to terms with it.

The first photograph heading is called Nest. It has developed from our Coursework subject, Utopia, from the book by Thomas More.  It comes from a wasp’s nest structure made out of paper but has then been translated into porcelain – the other Name for porcelain being paper clay.. The nest is formed of porcelain rings balanced on a porcelain rod, and although there are 35, of them and they are quite heavy, the rod is strong enough to hold them. They are suspended in a black wooden box – in space. The porcelain makes a bell like sound on the rod if it is moved, which is unexpected and gives it another dimension besides the purely visual.

In the second piece, Bowerbird Nest, I was influenced by the book The Poetics of Space by Gaspard Bachelard. How does one individual attract another into his home or space? After all, we are social animals, even if only to survive as a species and we like sharing our space.

Some birds, such as the Satin Bowerbird, have the most complicated rituals which include placing shiny objects outside their nests, and ritualistic dances in order to ‘charm’ the visitor in. We learn that as this particular Bowerbird becomes more mature, they increasingly like blue objects above all others. So my Nest has blue and shiny gold threaded through the rings in order to attract the visitor in.

The third Nest, which is slightly smaller, is called Hidden Treasure. It is black and white striped like the Cathedral in Siena. The white rings are porcelain and the black rings are Earthsone clay. This is a photograph of the first firing only, and the gold has yet to be added. It is called Hidden Treasure because two of the rings will have gold on them – the idea being to draw the observer into the nest to find the treasure. In other words the nest becomes interactive, and at the same time, it will make a harmonious tinkling sound.

Besides sound, the nests also have a textural quality which is the high fired porcelain, and also on Bowerbird, the colour especially of the shiney gold which glints. I am also pleased with the boxes I have had made, which not only display the work, but also protect it, as it is very fragile.