Nikki Lewis
Statement of Purpose 2018
Throughout my life I’ve had the great luck of living life in physically wild and beautiful places. My work has evolved over the years to reflect a fascination with my surroundings. Currently I reside in the mountainous area of Altadena, outside of Los Angeles proper. My backyard is a canyon with a large stream that swells from the snow pack from the San Gabriel mountain range. The abundant wildlife and flora in the vicinity inspires my current clay work. Coupled with a longstanding love affair with drawing and painting, I choose to carve and paint the indigenous creatures of my neighborhood into the most natural of materials, clay.
Bears frolic across chargers. Drawn on a platter a hawk swoops from the sky to seize a baby rattler. In awe of my cats’ skill as a hunter I sketch her likeness on an object with her latest prey, a field mouse, dangling in her jaws. Seedpods, dandelion puffs, bowers of oak leaves and acorns frame the vignettes of animals. I often think of these creatures as my own, coming to play and pose for me alone. The forms I make range from straightforward and functional, in order to showcase imagery, to more complex. Lately, I have concerned a significant part of my studio process to creating flower bricks. I deeply enjoy making these forms as they require multiple steps to assemble. The process of designing, fabricating, and decorating them is greatly satisfying.
Using rich, red earthenware slathered in icing-like white slip, I achieve my favorite combination of chocolate and cream. I design images on paper for stencils. I lay the stencils onto the surface of the wet clay before I coat them with slip employing expressive brush strokes. I use small tools to carve imagery into the surface. The pieces, once fired, are dipped in either a honey yellow or shimmering blue-green glaze and fired again. Black underglaze helps me dramatize the quiet moments I am interpreting on these object I have thrown. I hope to effect a tapestry-like quality with line and the placement of the image.
I am always interested in creating exceptional, beautiful, and playful decorative objects that work as a conduit for my natural environment.