Bowl - Lot #67

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Description

Vessel-making as an art form has intrigued me for thirty years. My response to the simplicity of clay is sensual and immediate because it has such a powerful tactile drawing force. However, my intellectual response to the complexities of ceramic art is a much more mystical, and therefore, a slower, thoughtful ongoing struggle which is only intermittently resolved. I find the Raku process extremely exciting and dangerous, fraught with possibilities for failure immediate and enticing. Working with vessels while the glaze is red-hot and molten can be entirely challenging and seductive. Similarly, the live flame in the high-fire reduction process also gives that element of working with the full force of fire on clay. The way the colours melt and fume into the celadon glaze on the two sister vases is radical and unpredictable. The large storage jar was buried in sawdust and chemicals before it was fired in a sagger. The resulting fumes are absorbed by the clay vessel in the absence of glaze. Currently my favourites are pots fired for over 24 hours in wood-burning kilns and thus they embody the live action flow of heat, ash, and energy.

An award-winning ceramist, Shirley Clifford started working with clay in continuing education classes at Mohawk College and the Dundas Valley School of Art. Advanced workshops with ceramists such as Jim Thomson and Leta Cormier led her into fulltime studies at the Ontario College of Art. In 2003, she participated in a ceramic residency in Shigaraki, Japan, an acknowledgement of her personal development and her background as a second generation Canadian of Japanese heritage. She has exhibited her work in public and private galleries, most recently in "Shared Landscapes" at the Burlington Art Centre in 2010.