Afterreceiving my BFA from The University of the Arts and living in PhiladelphiaI recently returned to my home near the ocean on Long Island, NY.Using my skills as a potter trained in traditional English and Japanese techniquesI began to create a series of formal service ware in porcelain, my favoritemedium. During this time I was also enjoying working on a scale that only thedelicate properties of porcelain allow, creating intricate sea creatures thatemployed imagery inspired by childhood memories and my newly familiarsurroundings next to the sea. The technical difficulties I began to encounterwhen enveloping the service ware with ferocious and unforgiving aquatic lifegot me thinking about a common need we all have to control our ownrepresentation of beauty. There is so much fastidious control involved in creatingeach one of the Bottom Feeder pieces, but with ceramics there is always amargin for error, and some degree of control must be sacrificed. The compositionof barnacles and crustaceans populating each piece, the way the iron oxidediscovers every nook of the creatures I've created, the way the tentacles warpin the firings, etc., is always a surprise. I’m never exactly sure howanything’s going to turn out. By allowing myself to be fully present in thecreation of the different parts of these pieces but then giving in to the compositionand glazing process gives each piece its own identity. In the end, one type ofbeauty is enhanced by complementing its foil, resulting in two completelydifferent aesthetics existing harmoniously as one piece. This play betweentotal control and inevitability has sustained my interest and attentionbecause it mimics life in so many ways: we try our hardest to compose theaesthetics surrounding us—from the buildings and environments we live in to theway we dress and present ourselves. Our daily fight against nature is afruitless pursuit, yet one we never seem willing to abandon. I find this play betweenforces endlessly challenging. The dance that results from trying to find abalance between what we can control and what we cannot is where I believe truebeauty lies. -Mary O’Malley
Exhibition curated by Naomi Cleary
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