Ruth Weston

Artist's Statement:

I have been doing ceramic sculpture for many years now. My art training includes two years of study in Florence Italy; where I studied art history. In addition to my art training, I have studied ceramic engineering and have been an engineer for 22 years before returning to the arts. My unique background has given me a strong sense of aesthetics as well as a good understanding of my material. I make my own glazes, which gives a unique beauty to my sculpture’s surface, its texture and its color. My work is not mass-produced with editions; each piece is unique.

I have always been fascinated with the rich, ancient tradition of modeling the human figure in clay which is then baked into a permanent, hard material. Well preserved fertility figures have been discovered which were modeled as long ago as 4000 BC, in soft clay which was then baked. This ancient tradition has been kept alive in such ceramic art work as the pre-Columbian clay figures, the Etruscan baked clay sarcophagi and funerary jars, and the Italian Renaissance portraits.

I often work towards a more abstract figure which is conjured from the elegant but extreme position of the human body while dancing. For me the tension in the movement of dancers is like a mirror which reflects the stresses and youthful excitement of our modern and sometimes absurd existence. As did the ancient artists, I am using clay modeling of the human figure to reflect the culture in which I live.

I use stoneware clay which must be fired to a much higher temperature than the soft clays of the ancient artisan, and thus my figures are much more durable. But like the ancient artist, I use simple raw materials to color the clay surface before firing. I have developed my own glazes from raw oxides such as flint, nepholine syenite, and kaolin.