For the Hand

The focus of my senior project is about the relationship between people and the objects they use to prepare and enjoy food. The individual pieces of pottery are conceived to promote a lifestyle of simple satisfaction and locality and produced to be emphasize the sense of touch among useful utilitarian forms. I believe my ceramics speaks to the user and emphasizes that it is made to appeal to their hands, to provide a larger sense of nourishment.Functionality as a philosophy among ceramicists has matured over the past 18,000 years. Most of the functional ware that we use today is designed for industrialized, high-volume manufacturing; the result is inexpensive but stripped of handmade qualities. My philosophy of ceramics works to restore the traditional values and appreciation for handmade objects, offering an art that can be both useful and personal.My philosophy of ceramics has also grown to consider an emerging concern in our society for sustainability and the importance of locality to the creation and consumption of goods. Locality encourages a relationship between the consumer and producer that is rarely experienced through commercial ceramics. Thinking and living locally provides a broad foundation from which to build stronger economies and relationships between the artisan and the public, between the products we create and consume. It is these larger social implications for the relationship of the potter to her community that I want people to consider when they use my ceramic wares to prepare and enjoy their food