Working with clay has become the next episode if not the closing chapter of my journey. Due to the professional status of my husband, I have spent the bigger half of our shared life with living in different continents. Three children soon became our treasure and the ‘global-village’ life was shared by the five of us. A story of love and care but an urge for personal growth soon broke out after my fulltime task of motherhood was almost accomplished.
A curiosity into Eastern Philosophy had emerged some years before as a result of falling prey to illness and the need to learn the ‘why’ and ‘how’ things takeaway the best of us. If the lesson is learned that Medicine not always provides an answer, failure has to give place for creativity and own responsibility…and this comes by ‘self-service’ only. I’ve got more than what I had bargained for. Sound interest soon evolved into some years of study where I learned that the Ancient Eastern Healing Tradition is based on the fundamental entities of life: Earth, Water, Air, Space and Fire. The study books have been closed meanwhile but to live that study has become part of me. A way of life. The physical body had been nurtured but so needed the mind.
To continue my search it became obvious that these five elements somehow would play part. The game of Earth, Water, Air, Space and Fire had to go on ...
Working with clay almost became an extension of my study .A result of thousand of years of erosion, which is what clay basically is, is mixed and wedged in my hands. Water and air evaporates whilst working on it in order to shape it. Later it will be sacrificed to the fire where it is turned into’ ossified-emotion’.
Working with clay can be a form of meditation. During times of repetitive work the mind can be free whilst the more intense work of struggle with technique and focus on detail generates discipline. Being an autodidact, for most of the time I accomplish my work in my own space and environment, where feeling the clay has become part of a daily routine.
Thanks to different workshops and being part of a Ceramic class for the last six years, I learn, acquire and apply. But the most wonderful experience with this form of Art is to grow and stabilize my quest for Holistic Health.
I invite you to scroll, look, read and hopefully give you some joy for a while. Please feel free to comment, positive, negative, in any language, by this giving me a chance to learn from you.
Love,
Greta
This hand-built paperclay piece and the use of sprays gave me a good exercise on how to create a dramatic outcome on otherwise a peaceful reflection.
Why we not all use our talents? Are we scared they will lead us to dark places or our Guardian will not trust the light?
Compilation of Four vases interweaving to a complacent new life.
Extras that are applied such as glazes, oxides or engobes can bring a piece to life. The use of colour can add drama, feeling or bring out the strenght or weakness of the object. Inspired by Sandra Zeiset Richardson.
In the field of the Enneagram studies the landscape of the Human Personality has been completely mapped out -from the high and healthy functioning state of the ego to the depth of the pathological mind. The Enneagram presented today is a distillation of teachings from several Schools of Spiritual Wisdom combined with the insight of Modern Psychology. In this work of ceramic, finished with Raku firing, I have tried to express the different states of the mind in a play of gestures, feelings, postures, attitudes or constrained demeanour which we carry with us as a result of our co-dependency.
1 comment:
Hello Greta, en-Joy looking at your "play"; come look at mine
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