I am traditionally trained in the ceramic arts. Although I embrace and honor the rich history of clay, I invent and pursue new approaches to the medium that tests the limits of the materials I use intentionally breaking craft rules. My current work in clay is repetitive in construction, building small pieces to create a larger form. Methodically I strive to find balance between solid and stable, cumbersome and chaotic, using elements to construct a teetering or uncertainty that reflect the fragile existence between these two states. I explore opposing shapes that draw attention to the tension and negative space forged from parts of a whole. Each unit is conjoined to the larger structure creating an irregular or oscillating silhouette. By retelling my process over and over through the intrigue of rudimentary construction such as slab, coil, and pinching, I am reinforcing this fact: mundane fragments conjoined through a repetitive process can create an edifice.

Formally the square, circle, cube, grid and arch are recurring elements in the work. In the deconstruction of the cube by creating structure, I’m exposing my own human error while interpreting geometry at will, thus creating my idea of perfect imperfection. The square and rectangle is the house, the city grid, as is a book, a piece of paper, a car, most furniture, skyscrapers etc. The construct of the cube, square or rectangle dominates the visual and functional spaces of our urban existence. The circle is the earth, the moon. The circle is the continuation of cycling of regenerating life and death for life again. The cumbersome cage or grid is a construct of labor. The grid creates cubes upon cubes to build and occupy space. This creates a consumption of space, the repetition of work ethic to obtain volume. The grid symbolizing the need for more, the every lasting possibility to build upon again and again. The Arch or pathway as a labyrinth, which is an organic response to the grid or cage, recreating direction and movement, which contrasts the cube in which they cling to, which offers a fluid pathway, a way in and a way out.

Squares and circles are reoccurring themes in my work. Metaphors for the vitality of the masculine and the feminine and their forever strive for balance, control, dominance and existences. I make no charge to understand the complexities of geometry that is not my intent. I use formal shapes to convey composition, tension, duality and connection.

Katie Queen