{"id":316,"date":"2023-09-18T03:36:37","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T03:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ilenaleepottery.com\/?page_id=316"},"modified":"2023-09-23T16:27:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T16:27:05","slug":"wild-foraged-clay","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ilenaleepottery.com\/?page_id=316","title":{"rendered":"Wild foraged clay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Earth
and
Fire<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

I am learning to speak my language of clay with simplicity. After many years of making pottery in the way I learned in high school and college \u2013 in a fully equipped studio, with a lot of equipment, and things, and stuff \u2013 I wanted to make my pottery with the clay I found here \u2013 right here. I am connecting to the place I call home and my community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am re-learning how to make objects in a simpler way \u2013 with only my hands, my brain, the earth under my feet, and a fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could just buy clay \u2013 so why bother? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to make my work, like I cook my food \u2013 connected to the land, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to know and understand where it comes from. And I want to help others to know that they can make art with what they have on hand, with no need to buy special materials, or expensive equipment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I want to understand how my choices affect my world. Like choosing local organic fruit, or planting a garden \u2013 I want the art I create to feed me and my community in a positive way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have explored urban parklands, local trails and coastlines. I dug into the geology and history of this city. I have scoured the internet and archives and found the brickworks and clay mines that provided the literal building blocks of Vancouver.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And in learning about the clay that many of our most iconic buildings are made from \u2013 I also learned of the stories of the people who worked that land and fired those huge furnaces to make the bricks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I learned about the land itself, and the first peoples of this land. Learning the original names of these places. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The very bricks under our feet and surrounding us \u2013 all have stories to tell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a 9 month artist residency in 2022, through St. Andrews Wesley United Church I was able to focus on this research \u2013 creating a body of work that connected my ceramic work with traditional land use, the urban industrial landscape and the stories of the people who built these communities. I created a series of ceramic cups \u2013 the quintessential grail \u2013 from clays used in historic brick manufacture that build many of Vancouver most historic buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These cups, archival photographs, geographical information and stories highlighted themes of settlement, colonization, ownership, land use, gentrification and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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