Carole Ann Fer, Dow Studio, Deer Isle, Maine

Carole Ann Fer

I make pottery for daily use, in the Mingei folk craft tradition. In the 21st Century there's no reason to make pots. Machines make them faster, more efficiently and more cost effectively. There are hand made imports available at very low cost to the consumer. Our lives are inundated with so much stuff, why make pots? For me, it's a calling, and a meditation. The desire to stay in touch with the hand made and the need to use what is made by hand. Making pots allows a connection between the hand, the heart and the spirit. In Buddhism it is referred to as funi.

My pots have an interactive dialogue, between maker and user, plate and food. Nourishment is provided for the body and the spirit, object and subject come together. MCRichards, poet, potter, and educator said in her poem Potter, "Always we are eating and drinking earth's body, making her dishes. Potters like sun and stars perform their art-endowed with myth, they make the meal holy."

My work is thrown soft on the potter's wheel to convey the malleable nature inherent in the material. When I alter, or reshape a piece, it is in the immediacy of the wet stage to enhance its pliable qualities. I affect the clay like fabric accented with pleats, buttons, darts andaccessories. The surfaces suggest the weathered and washed murailles of France or Greece. There is quiet beauty in the irregularity. Evidence left by making suggest history and transformation in the finished forms. Each pot is distinctive, contemplative and joyous.

Upcoming Shows: "Our Cups Runneth Over: Functional and Sculptural Ceramic Vessels" at the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston MA. - November 2010 - January 2011