Ann Taylor Gibson -- Works in Clay
Materials from the natural world have been my companions for more than forty years. I discovered papermaking first. Collecting, drying, and dyeing plants, I made pulp which I laid down as landscape collages. When I shifted to three-dimensional work, I made pieces using gourds, stones, driftwood. This led me to portable altars of bamboo, bone, bark and saplings. The ancient art of encaustic caught my attention, and I began melting and dyeing beeswax with natural materials, then painting with the material. Today I am working with clay, earth itself, which, combined with fire, transforms into beautiful objects for everyday use.
I do not use a potter's wheel but work entirely by hand, using my fingers and hand tools to shape my pieces. The pieces are therefore one-of-a-kind, showing the maker's hand with imperfections, finger marks and individuality.
Clay is a perfect companion for this time of my life. It requires patience and a full embrace of change and letting go. I must wait for so many things. The clay has to be the right consistency to handle. A new piece has to dry enough for its initial bisque firing. After the bisque firing, I glaze and fire again, and wait to see what my creation has become. All along the way I must let go of my expectations and know that a piece may look nothing like what I imagined, understanding that in the fire of the kiln anything can happen. Bowls warp. Glazes run. Platters break. But most of the time, magic happens.
Working in the Handle Factory, the community clay studio in Shelburne Falls, MA (where I am pictured above) is a joy. Nearly fifty clay artists share a large space equipped with big work tables, two kilns, glazes and hand tools. We also share information, experience, comraderie and life stories. We learn together and inspire each other.
I am also inspired by the art and crafts of indigenous people, and the reverence and the ingenuity with which they handle natural materials; by the simplicity and elegance of Japanese art and architecture; by the spiritual artifacts and sites of many cultures; and by my Buddhist meditation practice which teaches me patience and impermanence.
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Ann Taylor Gibson has a BA in Art History from Smith College and a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design where she studied printmaking and papermaking. She has had solo shows in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Greenfield and Amherst, Massachusetts; and has exhibited in numerous group shows nationally and in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, where she has lived for forty years. Her work is in private collections in Canada, the U.S., and England.