pottery – Tales of Creative Compassion

I like seeing artists who take a medium and do something entirely new to it. I like that about Bestebee Romero and her carved tires, I like that about Rebeca Mojica and her chainmaille, and I like it about Angela Mellor and her work with the translucency of bone china. Mellor first caught my eye with this piece.

I love this for the elegant melding of complexity and simplicity. I love how intimate it feels, like I’m seeing through the china to a different and more beautiful identity.

However, that piece is not the greatest representation of Mellor’s work, since she works mainly with light effects through bone china, which is also amazing. Here is a piece like that.

I don’t care how weird I sound, this vase is sexy. That’s right, sexy. You look at it and tell me you don’t feel that in a place where you really shouldn’t feel anything while looking at a vase.

This amazing piece is from a series called “Growth” by the lovely potter, Nancy Ross. Although I immediately felt that this was a strangely sexual vase, I feel completely vindicated in my response after learning from this article by Laura Parsons that this whole series was inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe. If anyone can make flowers sexy, it’s Gerogia O’Keeffe. If only because of my initial response, I believe that Ross has beautifully captured the spirit of O’Keeffe’s paintings in a completely new medium.