Artist Statement:
Clay is a very intimate medium, inviting touch from hands and lips as it is shaped and used. I aim to make functional pottery that people are compelled to pick up, pots that may sit back quietly and become integrated into someone’s routine.
Most of my work is made through a combination of wheel thrown and hand-built elements, then fired in atmospheric wood kilns, allowing for the asymmetry of human touch conferred in the making and chance in the coloration, both of which help to distinguish handmade from mass-produced pots.
Keeping functionality in mind, I design surfaces with pattern-based surface elements and textures that reference themes of nature, while maintaining utilitarian forms.
Artist Bio:
Esther Mech was born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised on the eastern coast of the United States. She received her BA in Studio Art with a minor in Art History from Wesleyan College (Macon, Georgia), and her MFA in Ceramics at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia). Her work consists of utilitarian ceramics, and she sees her work as complete only when it is in use.
Her work is available to purchase in the gallery at Southern Star Studio, located in downtown Athens, Georgia.
photo credit Stephanie Sutton