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Cloud Vessel - Lily Fein
Cloud Vessel
By Lily Fein
Porcelain
13” x 14” x 30”
2023
Artist Statement: Clay excites me for its immediate and direct response to touch. My process includes coiling and pinching layers of porcelain to create pieces imbued with the intimacy of the finger-marked surface.
I encourage the objects to morph and change as I create them, developing a language of improvisation that gives form to a stream of consciousness approach to making. I am interested in how a clay form can capture and imply movement. Clay holds these spontaneous moments balanced by the rhythm of the process. The fingermarks never cease throughout the pot and the glazes I use enhance this captured movement. I strive for the vessels to feel alive, as if they are still in motion. The meticulous stippling of the surface of my vessels, on top of the coil and pinching, dictates my sense of time as I fall into a steady rhythm with the clay. I hope that my conscious and necessary slowing down during the creation of my pieces is communicated through my vessels when they are seen and used.
Making sincere, handmade works of art is not merely a reaction to a predominantly ironic, throwaway culture. It is easy to say that the digital era has degraded our ability to touch and be touched. While these arguments are not wrong, they deny a fundamental connection to “tactility” that never ceases to exist in our everyday lives. We are inherently interacting with the physical world at every moment, the question is whether we are aware of this as we live. This intimacy with objects is a constant, and I have realized that my role in contemporary art and society can be to emphasize our connection to them.
Artist Bio: Lily Fein makes coil-built porcelain vessels that capture and imply movement. The objects morph and change as she creates them, developing a language of improvisation that gives form to a stream of consciousness approach to making. The clay holds these spontaneous moments balanced by the rhythm of the process. The fingermarks never cease throughout the pot and the glazes enhance this captured movement.
Fein grew up in Massachusetts and received her BFA from Syracuse University. She has since gone on to participate in various residencies in the United States including The Archie Bray Foundation, Northern Clay Center, The Society of Arts and Crafts, Craigardan, Project Art, and The New Harmony Clay Project. She currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana where she plays in a couple of bands and makes her porcelain vessels.
“I think my work connects with Salad Days through the intimacy of the pinched vessel that is left with repeated fingermarks throughout.”
-Lily Fein, New Orleans, LA.
Cloud Vessel
By Lily Fein
Porcelain
13” x 14” x 30”
2023
Artist Statement: Clay excites me for its immediate and direct response to touch. My process includes coiling and pinching layers of porcelain to create pieces imbued with the intimacy of the finger-marked surface.
I encourage the objects to morph and change as I create them, developing a language of improvisation that gives form to a stream of consciousness approach to making. I am interested in how a clay form can capture and imply movement. Clay holds these spontaneous moments balanced by the rhythm of the process. The fingermarks never cease throughout the pot and the glazes I use enhance this captured movement. I strive for the vessels to feel alive, as if they are still in motion. The meticulous stippling of the surface of my vessels, on top of the coil and pinching, dictates my sense of time as I fall into a steady rhythm with the clay. I hope that my conscious and necessary slowing down during the creation of my pieces is communicated through my vessels when they are seen and used.
Making sincere, handmade works of art is not merely a reaction to a predominantly ironic, throwaway culture. It is easy to say that the digital era has degraded our ability to touch and be touched. While these arguments are not wrong, they deny a fundamental connection to “tactility” that never ceases to exist in our everyday lives. We are inherently interacting with the physical world at every moment, the question is whether we are aware of this as we live. This intimacy with objects is a constant, and I have realized that my role in contemporary art and society can be to emphasize our connection to them.
Artist Bio: Lily Fein makes coil-built porcelain vessels that capture and imply movement. The objects morph and change as she creates them, developing a language of improvisation that gives form to a stream of consciousness approach to making. The clay holds these spontaneous moments balanced by the rhythm of the process. The fingermarks never cease throughout the pot and the glazes enhance this captured movement.
Fein grew up in Massachusetts and received her BFA from Syracuse University. She has since gone on to participate in various residencies in the United States including The Archie Bray Foundation, Northern Clay Center, The Society of Arts and Crafts, Craigardan, Project Art, and The New Harmony Clay Project. She currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana where she plays in a couple of bands and makes her porcelain vessels.
“I think my work connects with Salad Days through the intimacy of the pinched vessel that is left with repeated fingermarks throughout.”
-Lily Fein, New Orleans, LA.