Going Deeper, Going Personal

For the past year, as part of my MA, I have been researching ceramic artists, poets, techniques, glazing, surface design, clay bodies and inspiration based on influences and interests. It's been fascinating, challenging and exciting. There have been times I have been pushed to the wire engineering a piece, or running against deadlines for assignments in conjunction with assessments. I've met so many wonderful artists from all sorts of media and heard what they have had to offer in terms of creative practice. Along the journey I have visited exhibitions, fairs, markets, museums, and shows, I've interviewed my contemporaries and those whose work I admire. I have learned to network and put myself out of my comfort zone. My growth has been exponential and it’s been documented in here in my blog, in my sketchbooks and in my journal. 

My assessment at the end of my first year gave me feedback that I intend to work with as I strive to further grow and improve my skills, my knowledge and my practice. I have much work to do.

In addition to being a ceramic artist, I have other interests that don't necessarily influence my creative practice.  I also have a plethora of interests that do.  It’s this mix of the mundane and the quirky that informs what I create.  For my second year, I intend to start drawing these interests into my studies and to focus on growing my concept of Narratives in Clay based on the stories I write about a seedy Victorian freakshow.  It’s going to be less traditional research and more of a delve into my head.

Selecting what I divulge publicly here, and what I keep for the privacy of my sketchbook, will be a balance I need to find.  For now, to add a touch of colour to this post, I have had a wander around my home and snapped some pics of things that may or may not prove relevant to giving background to what goes on creatively in my head.  I hope you enjoy a peak into Costelloville…

Cheshire Cat by Tom

Rambrosia

Some of the illustrations by Enya Koster from The Freakshow poetry book I wrote in 2020

The poems from The Freakshow

English Heritage manacles

Wonderland, or the ground floor bathroom. Stained glass by Niamh, Cheshire Cat by Cherub (Cait has it tattooed on her arm), Mad Jack by me

Brummie Clown

My chatelain. A birthday gift from my lovely Mumsie who knows me so well

Tim Burton and Edward Gorey books in the den

Fire at the Big Top, Matthew Ellwood

We all need a plague mask...

The Ringmaster and Scrawny on stilts from The Freakshow

We kind of collect hats in a we can't stop buying them kind of way. These few adorn Wonderland

Colour. My favourite is black

It had my name on it really...

The side of my studio. These used to hang in The Jester, a dive bar in our home in Zambia