Artist Statement
In my new body of work, I am making sets of functional porcelain dinnerware on which I draw patterns using various techniques. The patterns suggest wallpaper, women’s bodies, lingerie, or pure abstractions. They continue from one plate onto the next and from there they spill onto the tablecloth and climb up onto the wall. I move the pattern across all these objects to show how the subject surrounds us. I put it on dinnerware to literally and figuratively bring it to the table. I want to gently address the subject of women’s sexuality and the gendered roles that women play.
I see the wallpaper as a kind of figurative study of the female body, and in turn the flocking or decoration of the paper becomes a kind of clothing; a corset, or perhaps stockings. The imagery transitions from a two-dimensional pattern to a three dimensional tactile form onto the plates, where one can touch it freely, openly, and can hold it intimately in her hands. By metaphorically reducing this dressed up woman to an object she, a dish, an empty vessel, becomes completely submissive.
I am creating multiple layers of visual information through the techniques I use, including stamping, carving and slip trailing. I alter the thrown forms to resemble women’s clothing. The decorative elements inspired by wall paper, ornament, and architecture parallel the act of dressing up. I also use a variety of decals to highlight areas on my wares that reference wall paper. The glazes I use range from glossy and wet to satiny and smooth. The color palette includes pink and fleshy tones as well as bright eye-catching, eye-candy colors. It is my hope that my work becomes something more than a mockup of a table setting; it becomes interactive, alive, and informative. I am interested in how one will respond to my creation of “traditional dinnerware” sets, where the viewer become inadvertently involved, even seduced.
