Stillness and Flow.
Painted Earthenware by Sophie MacCarthy.
Bicycling daily to my studio in the Chocolate Factory in Stoke Newington I feel, see and smell many things, some of which eventually find their way into my ceramics. Currently the wisteria is out in force, dripping with blue-pink-mauve gorgeousness, and cherry blossom lies on the ground like confetti. Once off the bike I am sometimes fixated by the colour and texture of tarmac or leaves strewn across a drain grid or by the colourful bits of detritus that blow across the pavement and up against the kerbside.
The making of ceramics involves various things – time, experience, experiment, as well as thought, memory and feeling. Pots have shape and character and, many-layered, can catch and hold sensations that, stilled in clay, travel on through time.
Sophie’s work is being exhibited at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre from 21 June – 14 July 2012, and can also be seen at our Summer Open Studios Weekend.