Artist statement                                                                               Linda Lewis

I believe storytelling connects us to one another and explains who we are. Working for several decades as an educator, being a parent and working with adults strengthened my desire to express common threads of the human experience and honed my use of imagery and gesture as powerful narrative tools. Working with clay allows me to create a world in which a story can unfold. I work with the human form because while the figure can be approachable, the presentation of its inner psyche is infinitely complex.  The pieces become a bit like three dimensional watercolors? fluid, textural & spontaneous - providing enough details to draw the viewer in but leaving individual interpretation.

The sculptures are coil built with stoneware or earthenware clay and are incised using common objects.  The underglazes, oxides and glazes are applied in layers to add depth and fired at cone 04.  A glazing technique that encourages crazing adds more dimension to the surface. When a black overglaze is applied to the multi-fired surface and sprayed off, the black settles into the cracks and crevices giving the surface a raku-fired appearance.