Artist’s
Statement
I'm on the ferry and we
are slowly traveling through a winding narrow pass between the Gulf
Islands off of Vancouver, B.C. The shoreline is dark, rich and green
with trees, grasses and rocks. Sometimes deer graze by the trees. It
feels wilder here by the shore even though I can see many trailings of
smoke rising and lazily drifting upwards. I watch a few gulls play over
the water, then an airplane screams and bullies it's way down an
invisible path over the dull roar of this ferry boat. Cities are built
right on top of lands like this, it starts here. I speak about that
juxtaposition between city life and wild life using a rich dark
chocolate-red clay painted with earthy tones of terra sigillata
pigmented clay slips. Wild beats, birds and circus-like figures juggle
topsy-turvy and fly helter skelter under tall colourful crowns of city
dwellings. Open windows glow from sunlight by day and candlelight by
night.
”Walker's
ceramic work is
a fascinating and joyous evolution. Her hand-built pots feature edges
of cut-out, painted houses, their roofs making a jagged, circular
skyline. Their colours - ruddy browns, dusty blues, pudding yellows -
make them seem like row houses in European fables. Beneath them, in the
body of the pot, are floating figures of people and animals. She is
never quite sure how they will look, deliberately courting spontaneity.
She evokes the conscious and the subconscious, the present and the
buried past, the mundane and the mythological."
”Other
clay works include
tall towers with removable roofs that have secret compartments inside.
Another series of towers is made of cubes that turn independently. The
figures painted on them can be reconfigured. One group of figures
called "4D Feelings" represent desire, delight, daring and
determination. Aligning, for example, Desire's head, with Daring's
body, and Delightful's legs gives a range of conceptual associations
and the potential to imagine ourselves as a many-sided "emotional
weather vane".
- Bettina
Matzkuhn (excerpts from CABC member profile, Craft Contacts 2002)
Artist’s
Works
Menorah,
7"x12",Red Clay painted with pigmented Terra Sigillata clay slip,
glazed candle holders, Waxed and Polished
Starry Night, City Pot Series,18"x 4"
Time Flies, City Pot Series, 15"x 8",
Red Clay painted with pigmented Terra Sigillata clay slip, Waxed and
Polished
Banner
Image
"Night
Watch", City Pot Series, 14"x9X, Red Clay painted with pigmented Terra
Sigillata clay slip, Fired to cone 04, Saturated in wax, Polished.
Contemporary Craft in British Columbia/Excellence within
Diversity Vancouver Museum 2008.
Work can
be viewed at the following venues:
- Crafthouse, 1386 Cartwright St., Granville
Island, Vancouver, BC (604) 687-7270
-
Canadian Craft & Design Museum, 639 Hornby St.,
Vancouver, B.C. (604) 687-8266
-
www.artistsinourmidst.com - click on Point Grey
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