Jan Howlin

“I am a Sydney-based ceramicist, working at One+2 Artist Studios at 6 Mansfield Street, Rozelle. I like to hand-build sculptural objects and I always want the form to tell the story, to allude to ideas and meaning through its three-dimensionality. The nature of form is that it presents itself to us as a physical challenge, its powers of evocation, symbolism and connection being quite distinct from the impact two-dimensional imagery might have. In this virtual world, form is substance. Form is presence. Clay is a fine way to make form. It is both raw and material. You work with it, then you cook it. But in the process this lump of amorphous matter has the potential to become, or to suggest, almost anything. You cajole it and nurture it along the way, and you hope that in the making you can invest it with a voice that can speak powerfully about ideas and elicit reactions and emotions. The ideas that motivate each piece for me change, but they are usually about people and everyday life, things that can build on the connections between us. I like the work to be light even if the subject matter is heavy, something that can be taken smiling even if the fact is grim.”