Kate Oggel

Intrados Series, #97
mid-range white stoneware, glaze

Working slowly with clay coils, I construct each vessel around a tranquil interior volume, describing its character through the nuances of the rim that borders it. The fluid lines of the rim frame the interior cavity, then direct the eye to continue exploring the form. I build up the roughed-in shape at first; this is the structure for what will follow. I then work gradually to scrape away the clay surface, refining the cavities, lines, and transitions that comprise the piece. This process of building up and then eroding each form is an echo of the ebb and flow of a tide. Much the way erosion, through time and flow, works in nature, my pieces have the formal appearance of things sculpted by wind or shaped by water.

The niches in the work become places of protection, metaphorically embracing solitude or sound. The myriad connotations of lines, such as protective (boundaries) and restrictive (margins), influence the three-dimensional lines I utilize as aesthetic tools. I apply satin glazes over flowing contours, giving the vessel a silky feel when touched. Curving lines and smoothed surfaces are dominant features of these vessels, referencing soft skin or a water-smoothed stone, and enticing fingertips to explore their surfaces. As a snow bank scoured by wind becomes a new kind of landscape, my work uses the lexicon of change in nature.

© Kate Oggel