For over 20 years I was drawn to the vessel as an abstraction and metaphor for containment.  I took ideas from traditional functional pots and stretched them into architectural and later, more organic sculptural forms.

In 2002 I began the Outurn series by moving the work from the horizontal to the vertical plane.  I abandoned my signature soda ash glazes for unglazed white stoneware which enabled me to address more formal sculptural ideas.

The Go series in 2005 represented a further letting go.  By creating more than one orifice and painting the interior of each piece I focused on openness rather than containment allowing the insides to spill out as reflected color.  The subsequent Go Pillows, Tumbles  and Abouturns continued my explorations of form, color, and reflected color.

Staying true to my clay roots of vessel-making, my 2008 body of work has evolved from a simple bowl form.  By deconstructing and reconfiguring, by distorting and manipulating, by combining two forms to make one, by grouping multiple pieces to create one, and by incorporating new materials—fabric, cardboard, wire mesh, and sea salt—I have tapped a new well of sculptural possibilities.  The work has been the leader, and I have followed: paying careful attention to its needs and coaxing it, by small revolutions, into being.

Anne Hirondelle

September 2008