KITTY SHEPHERD

Kitty Shepherd has worked as a professional slipware potter for sixteen years. She is known for work that communicates very different feelings and messages, which are often disguised as decoration.

Her source of inspiration is the everyday world and its contradictions. Hence we see here pots decorated with roses and AK47's; a skull and cross bones may be found amongst a pretty floral design, etc.

Whether working in 3D or 2D, through the expressive possibilities of the clay itself she creates a surface of which shape and volume are a part. Two dimensional works include encaustic and scraffito tiles which explore the possibilities of decoration on a single dimension.

All the work is made from red earthenware clay, each pot is hand built and painted with coloured slips which are carved away to reveal deeper levels of colour. Most pieces are fired twice but some have a third lustre firing. This year she has been exploring the area where the viewer is taken in an instant to a safe comfortable place by what they at first see, or indeed think they see.

A closer inspection sometimes reveals more than was expected.