We were interviewed ...........

Thank you to Danielle ORLANDO for choosing Clay Feet's exhibition ;Connected' at Mundaring Art Centre for her Uni Assignment. 

ELAINE BRADLEY in Clay Feet's 'Connected' Exhibition at Mundaring Art Centre

I also have work at Mundaring Art Centre's exhibition 'Connected' - already bleated about on my own blog  http://elainebradley.blogspot.com/ with the same images.  Some people seem to think blogging is a bit egotistical as was put to me of late, but I had to dispute it.  It is a way of sharing information in a non-pushy way.  Nobody 'makes' you click here, it is optional, and thank you for your interest, you are very welcome here.  An amused elderly gentleman in the post office eying my the mucky porcelain marks on my clothes lately asked me if I was a painter, so I explained that I am a potter.  'OH is that what a potter looks like' he twinkled at me - the old flirt, but was very interested in what I do.  I detest aggressive marketing but we must make ourselves known to the public, hence here we are.  

Most of my work is in porcelain, which I was always told was difficult and temperamental - basically to stay away from it, and yes all that is true but I love the fineness and whiteness of it and am hooked.  One of my most used forms is what I call a hanging box, a sealed in hollow box with a hole in the back to hang on a wall like a porcelain canvas.  This is slab build, with bevelled edges and must dry out very slowly before bisque firing. My decorations are more or less collage on clay, and my themes very often, birds, nests, nature. 

I grew up in a Dublin suburb with a bedroom window looking out onto trees and hedgerows, the garden always busy with birds taking their place in my world. I took comfort in their presence and find myself doing the same in my Fremantle life.  It has never surprised me that particularly in Ireland and the UK such motifs are a constant theme in home decorations and housewares. 

Pauline Mann at Mundaring Art Centre with Clay Feet

Pauline Mann in her first foray with Clay Feet has departed from her usual domestic ware to something a little more expressive.  This work makes you stop and think, and everybody has something to say about the connotations to church in this context.  It brought on some really profound conversations and confessions among the Clay Feet artists alone, and we wisely agreed to disagree.  More later....

"CONNECTED" Clay Feet at Mundaring Art Centre 3/9 - 3/10 2010

 

Clay Feet are having their Connected exhibition at Mundaring Art Centre starting Friday 3rd September at 7pm until October 3rd.  Those members with work on show are Jill Archibald, Narda McMahon, Pauline Mann, Gill Treichel, Andrea Vinkovic, and me, Elaine Bradley.   The range of work is surprising.  The delicious porcelain lamp above is by Andrea Vinkovic, the bulb is cleverly set into a two part clay base, and the lamp is made from three patterened 'petals'.  As you can see, it throws sublime shadows.  

 

Jillian Archibald teaches pottery at the Canning Arts Centre in Perth and you can see she is no slouch.  She throws components and assembles them into personalities, they somehow have attitude and an anthropomorphic feel to them.  They have been raku fired to develop a crackly smokey appearance, they smack of age, experience and to some extent, degradation.