I make playful, voluminous forms, taking care to add small details only visible from closeup. The monochromatic white palette acts almost as a camouflage among other plain manufactured mugs or against gallery walls; to discover the tactile oddities and depth of surface, you must lean in, must touch, must learn to look. I’m a lover of words and how we piece them together, much like clay, to create meaning; I often derive inspiration from idioms because I’m interested in how we perceive the world through the lens of certain phrases. My current body of work refers specifically to cloud related idioms (every cloud has a silver lining, there’s a dark cloud on the horizon, get your head out of the clouds, on cloud nine, etc). What interests me about these idioms in particular is how the cloud is seen as both a positive and negative force depending on the context. A dark cloud on the horizon brings rain, perhaps a storm, but also provides the nourishment for plants to grow, for life to form. The recognizable iconography of the cloud–the caricature, if you will–provides an access point to enter the language of my work, allowing space for reflection on the role these simple phrases play in our lives.
— Vanessa Norris
Vanessa Norris grew up in a small town in Maine and spent much of her time drawing and observing as a young person. Craving to get out of her comfort zone, she enrolled at MassArt to pursue a life of working with her hands. It was there she discovered and cultivated a love for clay. Since then, she has moved across the country several times to work for different ceramic artists, including Bruce Larrabee in Park City, UT and Deb Schwartzkopf in Seattle, WA. Vanessa is now a production potter for a studio in Boston and instructs clay courses for children and adults. She resides in Everett, MA where she set up Dirty E Studios with her partner and fellow MassArt alum, Gustavo Barceloni.
“Cloud 9”
In the midstof this mist
I must confess
to living this life
high on idioms
(cloud 9 and the like)
dripping droplets
remind me of falling
(in love)
always looking for
that silver lining
wishing to be
grounded
to a line,
another cloud,
even perhaps a dot–
perilously positioned in the air
climbing ever higher,
connecting to the particles
that surround it
how I scratch
and melt
into those lines
ignoring the confines of time,
finding myself
preoccupied with
perception
and the repetition of
the rhythm present
in the palms of my hands,
scratching and twisting
the fabric of my mind
until I can’t squeeze myself
anymore
and the truth
you always see
in my written words,
in between the lines of
every promise &
every pause.
I am pursuing the path ahead
and I walk,
not behind nor before
but beside you,
beckoning our future.