Inspired by Picasso’s element of play, I sought to create fresh work at AIR Vallauris that responded to what I observed and absorbed there, through unconstrained experimentation in the studio I created vignettes for future large-scale installations.
I created different vignettes that reference history and locale: cubist art, the perfume industry, pages of poetry, textures of timeworn architecture, sweeping lavender fields, forests of cork trees and the towering maritime alps. Framing this creative work was a more theoretical investigation of how this earth-based material embodies an animacy akin to living matter, at an atomic and physical level. This malleable creative medium that can be imprinted, polished and scraped, torn paper-thin, or layered thick and gritty, that crystalizes in the kiln, has a fascinating ability to embody an energy that is resonant, calming, and grounding.