TANYA McCALLIN

Home & Studio

"Within the chaotic, elemental nature of clay lies the potential for transformation into form that can tell stories, hold memories, be vital and alive. Out of this material energy, I seek objects that express an ancient rawness and conversely honed refinement.  

I am interested in the edges of pots, the balance of their form, structure and surface, but also in their group dynamics and their relationship to the architectural spaces they inhabit and rest upon.  The elements of light and shadow give objects vitality and resonance; their place and purpose informed by an emotional response to urban and natural landscapes. 

This is a collection of small vessels using a Lithium based glaze on black Spanish earthenware clay, fired to temperatures between 1025º and 1040º and black stoneware clay fired to 1200º in an electric kiln. The depths of rust like corrosion results from the heat work of the kiln melting the glaze materials, mineral oxides, onto and into the body of the clays to an observable and haptic point of near destruction.  They are thrown and turned to form open bowls with a direct reference to the observed oxidization of iron-based metals in found objects. They reflect disorder and decay, the impermanence of all things but strive to find aesthetic beauty in these very qualities."