Category Archives: Artist Profile

Sandy Harquail

​​Throughout my life I have been fascinated by the design process. My experiences as a child making tree forts, dress-up costumes and mud pies, in many ways influences how I pursue ceramics today. I use clay like a seamstress uses fabric, cutting patterns with curves and darts to change the shape and form. I envision my pots as pieces of architecture, always striving to create stable structures out of the pliable material all the while finding a balance in function and form. Each time as the clay is transformed from lifeless slabs to volumetric forms there is an excitement, a breath, an inhalation that I find nowhere else. 

​I began my exploration of ceramics in high school in small town St. Clair, Michigan in an independent study program. Through this program I discovered a love of clay that led me to pursue the arts at Eastern Michigan University. Looking back at my youth I see the influences of creative people all around me. My father, a finish carpenter, is a precision craftsman. My grandmother created slip cast porcelain wares and dolls. My Mother was always pursuing one craft project after the other. It was inevitable that I would become a maker of some kind.

http://www.sandyharquail.com/

Vin Arora

Vin Arora

Vin Arora
Vin Arora

A closer look at Vin’s artwork will reveal that it contains the spirit of an urban environ yet is fused with a profound respect for nature and the logic and mystery in materials. Any single work could reflect various energies like that of a folk festival, a hip-hop show, drag pageant, cartoon realities, dreamscapes, a political rally, or a silent retreat. His work derives colour, shape and texture from walks in the downtown east side as much as it does from contemplative hikes into the forest with his dog.

Vin Arora is a Vancouver based artist working and teaching in ceramics, exploring material as means of social cohesion and community building as well as a means of inward reflection. Vin attended the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (Now ECU) starting in ’96 and has worked in clay in Vancouver ever since. Vin has worked with many great teachers, artists and potters in Vancouver and also takes influence from travels in India and Britain.

Techtonic Plate Series-Stoneware-2″x 11″x9″-2017

www.techtonicplates.net

Vin Arora  vinarora6@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Pat Webber

Saltspring Island, BC

Pat Webber

Pat Webber’s pottery shouts out her love of animals and narrative. Her beautiful pot forms are classic, functional, but altered to feature her storytelling creatures. The glazes range from intense greens and turquoises to earthy wood fired, ash wrapped russets and terra cottas.

Harvest Helpers
Harvest Helpers

She is currently working on a series called The Hare and The Hound, which explores this unlikely friendship. These days Hare and Hound deliver pots down river and across the ocean in boats. The frogs are the potters, amongst other things.

Second Glance
Second Glance

Pig
Pig

Fired Up 2014
Fired Up 2014

Studio Location

Pat Webber Pottery
425 Stewart Road
Salt Spring Island, BC V8K 2C4
Phone: 250-537-8871
Email: jwebber@saltspring.com

Hours

Pat’s Salt Spring studio is open by appointment.

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Mary Fox

50cm T

Ladysmith, Vancouver Island

“Original Artwork that Will Stand the Test of Time.”

A self-taught explorative potter, Mary Fox is an artist whose innovative and inspired creations have garnered her National & International critical acclaim. Securing a reputation, through her practice, as a dedicated and highly skilled craft artist, Fox’s work focuses on creating contemporary pieces, based on classic lines that express the beauty and strength of pure forms. From inspired glazes to chalices that seem to spring up from the earth, each of Mary’s pieces tell their own story, evoking a sense of wonder and intensity that is both delicate and strong.

Bottle Vase by Mary Fox-10 1/2" T 2013
Bottle Vase with Navy Terra Sigilatta and Crawl Glaze

This is one of my favorite pieces. It is decorated with a  crawl glaze applied over a terra sigillata slip. I first started developing my crawl glazes in 1996, and what a learning curve it was! Crawl glazes are loaded up with a lot of extra clay. Clay shrinks as it dries and then shrinks even more when it is fired. This glaze beads up in the firing to reveal the slip underneath. The pieces with more than one colour of crawl glaze have been fired several times and had an additional application of glaze after each firing to create the multiple layers of colour.

Chalice by Mary Fox:15" W x 10 3/4" T
Chalice by Mary Fox:15″ W x 10 3/4″ T

“Pursuit of beauty is a constant in my life. It infuses everything I do. When working on vessels created to adorn our tables I derive pleasure from knowing that, through the subtle intimacy that grows from their daily use, these pieces will become treasures in people’s lives.”

Mary Fox Pottery, Gallery

Fox’s Gallery and studio are open year round to the public. She is prolific and exhibits regularly so there is always a large selection of both the functional and the decorative works to choose from. She walks her dog in the mornings, so mornings are by chance.

Studio Location

321 3rd Avenue
Box 35
Ladysmith, BC V9G 1A1
250-245-3778
Email: mary@maryfoxpottery.ca
Website: www.maryfoxpottery.ca
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MaryFoxPottery

http://www.modernhomevictoria.com/  interview with potter Mary Fox

The Obsessive Artist  http://thepotterscast.com/52/

Studio Hours

Tuesday – Saturday, 1 – 5 pm

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