JOAN WALTON .

ARTIST STATEMENT

Unlike most sculptors, my work focuses on interior space. While maintaining a pleasing exterior form, I am most interested in what is inside and how it is related to the shell that enfolds it. In my work, I explore my thoughts about exposure and protection, vulnerability and inaccessibility, and the passage of time and beauty. For as long as I can remember, way back into childhood, I have walked along with my eyes to the ground in the woods or by the shoreline looking for beautiful cast-offs of plants and animals. Examining these things has always brought me joy. I like to feel the rough edges and smooth insides of these natural discards. I am engaged by the construction and wearing away of these found objects, what beauty is discerned from these processes and what might be hidden inside. They make me think about the ever-changing process of life, how there is beauty everywhere in it and at all stages.

I think of my work process as a conversation that will be overheard by a careful observer. I work on several vessels simultaneously, as my pinch-and-build method is slow going. Small pieces of clay are loosely attached to one another and then lined with soft clay as each vessel grows into its final shape. Surfaces are treated with a variety of slips, oxides and engobes, then fired, glazed and fired again, sometimes multiple times.