Sneak Peek.
Behind the concept for new ceramic works of art created by artist Lisa Love specifically for the Oracle Artist Studio Tour. Both hand-built and wheel-thrown porcelain pieces will be featured. Along with abstract paintings by Lisa that color the walls of her studio.
Of the Land.
This collection of hand-made porcelain pieces was inspired by a mortar stone that was uncovered while doing yard work at my studio. The surrounding landscape has massive granite boulders that seem to have been dropped from the heavens, precariously perched on top of one another scattering the property with vast blue skies at the horizon of the outcroppings. The land and my ceramics studio provide me daily inspiration. My studio is located in the historic western town of Oracle, Arizona.
The grinding or mortar stone is approximately four feet wide by six feet deep and set in a valley. The rock is sloped and large enough to kneel in front of the stone as the Native American people may have used it to grind the sustenance from the land hundreds of years ago.
I was so inspired by this surprise finding, thinking about the people who were here before us. I wanted to pay homage to them by creating these press mold bowls from the grinding stone itself which is about five inches wide by six inches deep. The outer texture of the bowl mimics the texture of the mortar stone and the interior captures my finger prints as I pressed the porcelain into the mold. Pieces reflect the color scheme of white, blue, and dark gray-black which can be seen in the rocks and the sky. As I knelt at the mortar stone and pressed in the flat rolled porcelain into the grinding hole that took hundreds of years to form. I couldn’t help but see the beauty all around. Beauty that helped nourish the soul.
Of the Present.
Words cannot fully describe the feeling I had as I was throwing this piece on the wheel. It felt other-worldly, as if a quiet helper were throwing through me, as if we and the clay were one in a single, focused breath. It remains one of my favorite pieces to date—the subtle lines woven into the form itself are gently accentuated by the linear exposure of the naked porcelain, revealing both restraint and presence. This piece now serves as the quiet inspiration for a new collection, Of the Present.
