Where do you draw inspiration from when making new works? Do you find this differs whether creating ceramics or works on paper?‍

‍Yes, it’s very different whether I work on paper or creating ceramics. The work on paper is imagined, related to the principles advocated by surrealist artists, drawing from an inside and /or a beyond place, a magical world that I would like to call the realm of my art. This process is then repeated with variations as a form of meditation, where in this practice I become a vessel to express some forms of universal truth about beauty and art. The work in ceramics is balanced and grounded with Earth. It is a secondary contemplation, one with the material and the craft: The realization of drawings becoming totemic objects radiating and filling the space.

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Tell us more about your sculpting process; do you make preparatory sketches for your ceramics, or are the forms created more organically?‍

‍As mentioned earlier many of my drawings are ideas for my painted sculptures. At first, I mount the object like a vessel with coils, following literally the dimensions created by the lines of the drawing. The piece is then slowly dried during a period of months, then glazed before multiple firings at high temperatures. Once the ceramics as attainted the glazed appearance of finished stoneware the décor is applied with pigments in wax to allow a polychrome transformation. To paraphrase the painter Josephine Halvorson who said color is what gives identity to form, encaustic paint enables me to create what I imagine as polychrome sculpture from my ceramics, giving a reality to my imagined pictorial worlds.

In addition, I think my ceramics look very organic and handwork with coils certainly qualifies as a living process. However, formally the objects are always built after the instructions of the drawing given as blueprint.

Through social media you have been sharing new works daily; can you tell us more about this and how it informs your practice as an artist?

‍As for many artists it all starts for me with a drawing. Furthermore, in my views the core of one’s practice is often rendered visible through the drawing. During Frank Stella 2015 retrospective in the Whitney in New York I was stunted by how tellingly his drawings were. In my opinion everything of Stella’s art is in it. My hope that my feed is likewise readable by my audience on social media, without precondition. In a way I would like to share my work at the ideation, at the source. This task can leave me vulnerable and push me to refine continuously the meaning of my content through the practice of drawing.

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‍Is there a piece of work you’ve created that particularly stands out in your mind, and why?

‍Ceramics pieces like Cat#050 or Cat#051 are landmarks in my practice as they open for me a viable path for the realization of my concepts related to polychrome sculpture. It is a journey where color contributes to the spatial discourse of my objects. In addition, I like to imagine those surfaces as abstract paintings extending the conversation.

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‍Are there any pieces you’re currently working on? Do you have any upcoming exhibitions?‍

We spent time talking about drawing and their meaning to me. In terms of ceramics production, I work on many pieces simultaneously. Some are at coils level, some are drying, some are in the glazing stage and other are painted with encaustic colors. For most of my pieces the process of production can last a few years from start to finish. Next to this practice I also paint, draw and collage, working with oil, tempera and encaustic.

With regards to showing I will be participating at the Superfine Art Fair in New York upcoming May.

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