Collette Spears - "Points of Cadence"

On view in the Carbondale Clay Center Gallery throughout July 2017. Opening reception Friday July 7th from 6-8pm.

"I think that people live their lives in a certain rhythm and pace. That rhythm has a widespread effect on who you are, who you think you are, what you want, how you feel, what you do, and how you think, and a slight shift in your cadence can dramatically alter how you live. The work I’ve made has always been a reflection of myself and the life I’m living, and I felt like I had sort of consciously acknowledged that my cadence had changed a bit over the last couple years. This exhibition is a joint show of what I consider to be a foundational bedrock of myself and a developing, unresolved, freer self. Put another way, it is also a display of the effect Carbondale has had on me since moving here in 2015." 

Tatting...

In addition to her ceramic pieces, Collette will be exhibiting a number of pieces of her tatting.

Tatting is "the act or process of making a kind of knotted lace of cotton or linen thread". She describes her interest in tatting, "I became interested in tatting because my grandmother had dabbled in it, and it is a medium – like many other fiber processes – that makes me feel connected to women in my family. I was also drawn to it because it’s a very old process that has nearly died out in modern times as overly tedious and more or less irrelevant. Who really needs (or wants) to spend weeks on handmade doilies? Nobody. I barely do a lot of the time. But tatting has an integrity that I really love that hints at a pre-industrial time when everything was done by hand, just as pottery does. I think they pair nicely together, and the tattings add a level of presentation, warmth, and domesticity to ceramics." 

On her CCC Residency...

I give the town and people of Carbondale credit for inspiring me to have a better lifestyle and be a better version of myself, which has translated into the studio (still working on that translation). None of it would have been possible without the residency at the CCC to begin with. I think I gained the courage to make a personal and artistic change that was needed and to step toward some uncertainty. I am trying to make some pots that are more simple, more colorful, and hopefully honest. Stenciling with underglaze has been a brand new area for me that has felt pretty good within several months of experimentation, and I’ve dipped back into some throwing again, as well as trying out a few new clay bodies. More than anything, I am grateful for the many enriching communities and relationships that being a part of the Carbondale Clay Center has given me.

More about Collette Spears and her work is available on her website: www.collettespears.com