Brambling

My Mother once told me that when I was younger, I saved a Peacock butterfly from a spider's web only to try and put it in my mouth. Looking back, I think I was trying to savour its beauty. Through ceramics, I express this same strange curiosity, exploring the willingness of our minds to step in, out of a desire to feel something more sensory.

Drawing inspiration from the British landscape I grew up in, I utilise clay as a language, translating memory and emotion into physical forms. This exploration is manifested through two distinct series. The Face Pots reflect a time in my life where language failed to aid me in connecting with others. As a result, I turned to my artworks as a new mode for expression. The Brambles explore the duality of emotions, where unease meets investigation. Revisiting a memory of picking blackberries with my family in the British countryside. The taste of the sweet berries intertwined with the sting of invasive nettle plants made me think about the lengths we will go to encounter something sweet.

My artworks exist in the wilderness, taking form amongst fluid leafy tendrils, that are informed by my research into the natural world, as depicted in Rococo artworks of the 18th century, and through the British landscapes depicted in Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Characteristics of these aesthetics are explored through materiality and colour.