It started with a collage: a festivity of blue and white.
I have always been surrounded by blue and white pottery: our family dishes when I was little were blue and white Corningware (upgraded to a Blue Danube pattern once we were older), and my mom has a collection of Chinoiserie vases and lamps. For the past couple of years, I kept coming across pieces in vintage and antique shops where the blue paint or glaze looked like it had bled, as if over time the color seemed to seep away from the design like watercolor over a wet surface.
Finally bothering to research the pieces, I discovered that this bleed actually happens during the glaze firing process, and it was done on purpose (by adding ammonia to the kiln during firing)! These pieces are called Flow Blue, most popular during Regency and Victorian England. I have seen a bleeding effect on other historical ceramics, but have been most drawn to Flow Blue pieces.
Flow Blue typically comes in two colors: a Cobalt blue, which is bright and intense with a cool blue-green undertone that bleeds a teal haze; and Mulberry, a deep inky blue with a reddish-violet undertone that bleeds a lavender haze.
I decided to create my own versions of these 2 Flow Blue ceramics, with designs inspired by Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, and English pottery.
These paintings - The Blues Collection - are created entirely in various shades and hues of blue, teal, violet, mauve, and periwinkle... with an orange accent. There is no white in these paintings (kind of like how dollar bills used to only be printed in shades of green on pale green paper).
These are not meant to be recreations of historic ceramics, but a new interpretation and celebration of the beauty of loosening control, of freeing and releasing.
Any good potter or ceramicist knows that glaze and the kiln will do what it wants to do - the same glaze can turn out differently every time you use it. Just like how a painter can help cause a drip, but not really how that drip acts (that's up to gravity and the path of least resistance), the bleed on the Flow Blue pieces couldn't really be controlled, other than simply allowing it to happen.
The Blues Collection is an exploration of the color blue, a celebration of historical ceramics, a communion of texture and line, and a little bit of letting go.
After nearly 4 years, I am finally re-exploring florals in a full collection!
I am excited to be part of Art of Pink in National Landing! My work is part of the BLOOM art exhibition alongside dozens of local artists.
Come check it out Friday, April 11 in Arlington, Virginia!
