Ancient people made simplified and/or distorted human forms to represent their gods and each other. These works fascinate us for their ingenuity and their stripping down to the essentials, the factors that still make a work human even when there is very little to the form.
This simplicity is the aim of my sculptural works. The figures are grounded but vulnerable, stylistic but graceful, emerging from the clay as though from the past, hence the names of Greek goddesses. I develop the figures spontaneously using small pieces of rolled-out clay, while the heads are formed in moulds I have created. These two techniques result in very different works that become the separate series.
The figures, despite their faceless geometric heads, seem very feminine and almost angelic. The heads are modern but primitive. The patterns, shapes and cut-outs that distort the imagery are reminiscent of the way kings and gods were depicted long ago.
The glazed works are fired in my electric kiln, using glazes I mix myself. Other works are raku-fired or black-fired at my home or the Fernbank workshop of master potter Malcolm Boyd.
I have been creating and exhibiting artworks, visual and sculptural, for about 20 years, during and after my career as a journalist in the print media. I have an Advanced Diploma of Visual Arts from Chisholm Institute, where I also began ceramic studies, later continued at GippsTAFE in Newborough until that course was scrapped.
In 2016 I completed a Diploma of Arts (Tapestry) through South-West TAFE, Warrnambool. Woven tapestry is an age-old technique that lends itself to modern abstract imagery.
My art practice embraces ceramics and tapestry, both of which begin with a simple raw material that becomes a solid, tangible object, complete in its own existence.
My work can be seen at Scope Galleries, Warrnambool; Town and Country Gallery, Yarragon; ArtSpace Gallery, Wonthaggi; Meeniyan Art Gallery; the foundry, Bairnsdale and Post Office Gallery Loch Sport.
To view more works, please see my blog: lisatimmsstevens.blogspot.com.au
Click here to download Lisa’s CV.
