Lori Evans

Hope and Trepidation
clay, underglaze, glaze
4.75 x 3.75 x 3.75 in.

Originating in the slipcasting process, my ceramic sculpture is hand built from geometric forms, and often incorporates the use of multiples. Whether constructed as a single piece, or as a unified group of multiples arranged according to spatial relationships, my work incorporates themes of architecture, geometry, and personal history.

This work evolves out of a sensitivity to materials and process. With an improvisational approach to deconstructing and reassembling slipcast forms, I allow the content of a piece to emerge as the form develops. Thoughts solidify into a concept, which I convey through content, context, and presentation.

Slipcasting, which is the process of pouring liquid clay into plaster molds, requires keen attention to the point at which an empty mold becomes full. Timing is critical when slip is cast and emptied. As a result, the relationships of flow verses containment, liquidity verses viscosity, and flexibility verses rigidity, are embodied within every piece. Also integral to the process is plaster mold making, which necessitates careful consideration of a form and the divisions within its physical structure. The relationships of interior verses exterior, positive verses negative, or liquid verses solid, also offer endless possibilities.

By observing and responding to an ongoing evolution of materials and process, I translate into physical form, the aspects of order and randomness, logic and imagination, and preconception and improvisation. My sculpture, whether architectural, geometric, singular or multiple in nature, is inherently linked to the relationship of opposites.

© Lori Evans