Maureen Mills artist statement

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Updated: 8.7.2007

MAUREEN MILLS

Clays have been forming in the surface of the earth for thousands of years. The use of this medium by potters around the globe to create functional and beautiful objects has undergone diverse explorations of form and surface throughout this continuum. By pursuing a relentless exploration of utilitarian pottery I have developed a personal voice that allows me to draw on long standing traditions of Folk Pottery from Europe to the Americas while creating uniquely personal forms by recombining design elements into an emergent vision of function. My work fuses the earthy characteristic of brown stoneware clay with the intricate quality of the traditional technique of slip trailing, yielding a delicate ornamentation overflowing the swelling surface of strong forms. The undulating and stretched contours exploit the malleability of the clay while the use of glazes that are responsive to an enigmatic firing process unites form and pattern, strengthening the visual impact.

My work continues to explore the contradictions of delicate surface techniques combined with the strength of brown stoneware clays and most recently the use of pristine white porcelain clay body in heavily altered forms. When fired in a wood-burning kiln, the surface can become almost obliterated with melting ash, yet the subtle quality of surface depth that is achieved continues to strengthen each form. Instead of exaggerating pattern and surface, the firing process itself combined with altered shapes and relatively restrained surface treatment yields a body of work that is a synthesis of my continuing European, Asian and American influences.