La danza creativa delle mani
I am a doodler: I draw doddles absentmindedly on every surface I find. And if I have a piece of clay in my hands I “doodle” with clay. Small animals will appear or geometrical forms or holes and ridges.
Since childhood I have been attracted by colour and shapes starting to collect images and patterns from magazine, to use one day in collage.
If I look through my iphone pictures now, I see the same eye that used to choose what to cut then in what I decide to photograph now.
Listening to my inner voice
When I started my formal artistic training at the ceramics course in Harrow, I initially concentrated on learning the pottery techniques but very soon I started to let my inner voice come through.
I concentrated myself on tableware making plates cups and bowls to add my personal touch to the family dining. My life as a mother and cook could come together in this way.
The artist in me dictates the way I use the material. I throw in porcelain and that that gives me the white canvas and the food safety I need, but I choose it also for its softness and way it can be pulled very thinly and the way that it folds creating ripples and soft edges.
The magic of the kiln
The glazes I use add an element of richness of depth and unpredictability that I find exciting.
Like the accidental discovery of patterns found in my walks, the “magic “ of the kiln gives me the same excitement.
I work quickly and energetically letting my hands lead the process. This happens both in painting and in ceramics my two main ways of expression.
Of course if I am making tableware I follow a sequence of actions that allow me to replicate the shapes, but the routine is sometimes freed by making sculptural pieces.
Exploring new paths
The lockdown period has been a creative space when all the exhibiting stopped and I could concentrate on finding new explorative paths.
This is how my Grandmother body of work came to be, going in parallel between drawing and clay in a journey through memories and expression of need of community and story telling.
The isolation we felt resonated for me as well in the creation of the work “From Darkness to Light”. The stories told by my Parents and Grandparents and the Holocaust have always affected me and I wanted to express them in a piece of art.