Clay changes throughout the entire Ceramics process as we return to meet a new iteration every step of the way, beyond the realities initially imagined. The intention for the object remains, but the experience with the object can exist beyond the initial reference it was derived from. My Ceramics practice is a combination of coiling, wheel throwing and hand building; to create objects that explore a cannon of patterns, colors, sizes, shapes and textures that are relevant to memory, aftermath, nature, repetition and place.

Pattern and color are referential to memory or the aftermath of an experience. Combining patterns and colors implicitly pays homage to what once was, cultivating an object into existence beyond my mind. Size and shape, designates an experience–creating a level of sacredness, specific to its form. Pulling from my own experiences, I designate the feelings associated with the size I choose to make an object, while maintaining understanding that the relationship is going to change throughout the process as it grows into itself. Similar to my relationship with myself or the work that I do with myself, the work is ever changing.

Texture makes the object interactive beyond my initial interaction, it is something I can trace and place and allows me to access different senses: “I’m trying to make something feel as alive as the process makes me feel.” I can pull from my internal narrative—but ultimately, I can still give the object to someone and they can define their own experience with the object for themselves. Essentially an extension of my hand, or an extension of my feelings, but I don’t have to get too literal about my feelings. The work will be activated regardless of what layers of the experience I activate for them.

Thus, the relationship with the object can change like a relationship to people, places or events; the object is some remnant of the past that can be accessed because I remember how it felt to make it. The past is intrinsically connected to the object’s existence. Every mark made is a remnant from the process. The remnants from process make an object’s experience feel like a relic of what is lived and what is felt. All the remnants make the collective feeling live on beyond the initial origin. I can still feel remnants of the experience even though everything leading up to its existence isn’t explicitly present.