Naomi Clement

Artist Statement

My current body of work is a constant discussion on how things fit together and how they do not. In particular, I am interested in points of transition in the work: the space where orange becomes red, the place where glaze meets bare clay, the edge of a handle and the end of the pot. In my process, I continually seek out and create opportunities for these moments to occur: leaving a seam visible in a hand-built cup, cutting a soft line in the rim of a bowl, or negotiating the space between white slip and bare clay. As a maker, I am interested in how these moments record my decisions and become physical signposts left for a future user. These traces of intent and action say: I was here, please bear witness to that fact.

Making functional pots is all about noticing: noticing the material, noticing the process, and noticing the user. It is about noticing the moments and creating moments to notice. However, function is also about thoughtfulness, it is about thinking ahead, about caring, and about noticing others. There is a weight to this: seeing and acknowledging are powerful acts.

My pots ask to be noticed and examined. I want them to convey a sense of a life lived, and a life still to be lived; they are about making connections and wanting to make connections. A snapshot of the journey, each pot is a tether that connects me to me, and me to you: a memory bound in mud-made-stone for years to come.

-- Naomi Clement

Bio

Naomi Clement is an artist and educator who explores ideas of home and belonging through the powerful lens of functional ceramics. Naomi received her MFA from Louisiana State University in 2017, and her B.F.A from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design University in 2003. Her formal education is balanced with a host of experiences in the ceramic field: she has been an apprentice to two established potters; has worked as a studio potter; has given lectures; has attended multiple workshops and residencies throughout North America; and she currently serves as a board member for the National Council on the Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). Naomi has exhibited her work throughout the U.S. and Canada, and was recently named a 2017 Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly magazine.