About
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“We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness that one thing against another creates… Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.” Junichiro Tanizaki, 1933 I am a York-based sculptural artist whose porcelain works are rooted in this Japanese aesthetic tradition - quiet, controlled and deeply attentive to the interplay of light, shadow, negative space and time. My practice spans wall-mounted relief pieces, large-scale combined works and freestanding table sculptures, and is both meditative in process and contemplative in outcome.
Through a distinctive process of press-moulding porcelain onto folded structures, delicate planes and textures are translated into a permanent medium - a fold fixed in time. Working in multiples, repeated geometric elements shift from line to curve, generating movement and volume. Subtle distortions introduce asymmetry, establishing balance through irregularity. The resulting forms draw on natural and cosmic structures — planets and stars, seed heads, flowers, solar and lunar bodies - suggesting patterns of growth, cyclical processes and the quiet passage of time. Colour is added directly to the porcelain body and the work remains unglazed, preserving the geometry of the fold and allowing light and shadow to complete it. I work with a range of materials alongside porcelain - among them hardwoods, precious metals and leaf - each chosen for its own material character and its relationship to light. The painted grounds against which my forms are set are not merely backdrop: shadow falls into them and reads against them, the geometry completing itself in darkness as much as in light - tones shifting between dark and light to mark the passage of time, from dawn to dusk, season to season. The concept of yohaku no bi - the Japanese philosophy of the beauty of empty space - operates throughout: negative space is given the same weight as the forms that surround it, and my work consistently asks attention to be divided between what is present and what is withheld, endlessly reshaping the forms and revealing, as Tanizaki understood, where beauty truly resides.My work is held in galleries and private collections across the UK and abroad. |
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I grew up in North Wales and now live and work in York. My practice began with paper folding - I remain a member of the British Origami Society and the geometry of folded paper continues to inform the way I think about form and surface. After many years of teaching I left to pursue my passion for art and design full-time in 2019. I am endlessly fascinated by the way light moves across an unglazed surface - and by the shadows that only appear once the work is finished and hanging in someone's home.
"I am never seeking perfection — it is the asymmetry in the geometry that excites me." I am an elected member of Leeds Fine Artists, a Rising Professional Member of Design-Nation, a member of the British Origami Society, the Craft Potters Association, the Northern Potters Association and the York Art Workers Association. |
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If you are interested in purchasing a piece or would like to arrange a visit to the studio, please get in touch.
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