Our Journals: Shaw Road Ceramics
Theatre, tv and film design is about building a world that reads clearly from a distance but also holds up under close inspection. Every surface, proportion, and material choice is carefully considered. Instinctively, I realise I have carried this into my ceramics practice. I am always thinking about form architecturally, considering how light falls across a texture or finishes the way it would across a set, and never losing sight of the "story" a piece is telling. I'm just as interested in the space between grouped objects as in the object itself. I have come to realise that, as much as I admire art for art's sake, I gravitate towards giving my pieces the option of a function, which could be anything from telling a story, posing or answering a question, or the more tangible such as holding food, flowers or a candle perhaps.
I am so enamoured by the fact that clay holds both at once. An organic matter, soft and shapeable until fire makes it permanent and brittle in a way that demands respect. On reflection, I believe this duality shows up perhaps in choosing to leave a settled career and relocate to start again. It shows up in mentoring young artists, where you're strong enough to guide but vulnerable enough to be genuinely present with them, and more recently, in my own and family health challenges, which have required me to be resilient but also gentle and kind to myself.
Being nestled among orchards on the edge of the Waitākere Ranges bush shows up everywhere. In the soft, earthy palette across my work, in the nocturnal world explored in the evening primrose and moonflower pieces, and in the pekepeka-tou-roa (long-tailed bat) and ruru appearing as subjects. I love to experiment with layering and painting glazes to recreate the colours and textures I see from my studio doors, and reflect my awe of the wild west coast, such as in the Piha and Waitākere mist mugs. There is no denying my local landscape isn't a backdrop, it's the why for many of my pieces.
Having moved away from mentoring at Kākano Youth Arts Collective to focus on my own practice, I really want the students I worked with to keep growing by seeing me approach my work with absolute honesty and authenticity. Watching someone work slowly and consciously, always be willing to learn, willing to let a piece fail and start again, models a relationship to art that's less about getting it right the first time and more about staying in the process and ultimately building a sustainable and successful career. Honesty, authenticity, and showing up are everything to these rangatahi, coupled with sharing the skills that let them eventually find their own way to thrive, despite the challenges life has thrown at them.
Weight and presence first, creating the sense that this object was considered, not mass-produced, provoking a quiet respect for a craft that stretches back many thousands of years. I want it to stir curiosity: how was this made, and how does it make you feel? Ultimately, I want it to feel precious and singular, something you and your descendants might hold for generations to come, especially in a world that so often now treats things as disposable.
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