I'm a ceramicist working from my home studio in Norwich, Norfolk. Inspired by archaeology, aerial photography and past landscapes, I produce predominantly wheel thrown and hand decorated and raku fired vessels. I also undertake creative projects inspired by archaeology. I am a member of 'Lost Yard Studio' a shared art-led ceramics space, where I will work on artistic projects with an archaeological focus.
I'm a landscape archaeologist by training, so the relationship between people and place, in both the past and present, fascinates me. I specialised in aerial photography and spent two decades discovering, mapping and recording the traces of past landscapes, settlements and monuments visible on aerial photographs in East Anglia. The decoration of my ceramics is heavily influenced by the layering and patterns of the ancient landscapes that I spent so long recording from the air. I find the distinctive shapes and patterns of prehistoric monuments and settlements so visually striking. Revealing themselves as a graphic and abstract array of rectangles, squares, circles, dots and dashes, and linear marks upon the surface. My decoration is often a painterly 'mapping' onto the clay body, with stylised trackways and enclosures traversing my ceramic surfaces, which is sometimes ‘excavated’ or eroded away to reveal a hidden layer. In some of my work, most notably the stoneware and raku pieces, these motifs have been reduced down to a more minimalist linear design. Both bodies of work speak to me of archaeology; one is just more representational and the other more abstracted.
The meanings and narratives of objects and places is also central to my work. Alongside my functional pieces, the last 3 years have seen a return to producing more art-led ceramic works inspired by archaeological places, ideas and artefacts. Exploring sculpture and more tactile forms, I'm enjoying creating pieces that embody stories of people and place in a more meaningful way.
