Tracy McDowall

Resting Yellow Fringe Vessel, 2023

WHITE STONEWARE CLAY, SPRAY PAINT, ASSORTED PENCIL AND MARKERS, MIXED MEDIA.
33 cm
Coming from a painting and drawing background, I have enjoyed playing with a new medium to make marks and explore surfaces.

Clay allows me to scratch, layer, texture, colour and etch in a range of different ways that 2D media will not allow.

Thinking in a more 3D way has been a welcome challenge. I love the process of handbuilding with slabs – working at piecing together each slab like a jig saw puzzle, letting the clay dictate the final form and scale of each pot. Cutting into each slab – slicing, incising, pressing, cutting – the fragility it causes to each slab as I construct and make each piece makes me slow down and problem solve with each element of the build. I like to think of the slabs as being pieces of paper – often working with scissors to cut and shape the clay.

In this collection I have attempted to create a series of vessels which fuse both my love of working with paper with the possibilities of clay.
I completed my Honours Degree in Visual Art in 1992 at QUT – majoring in painting and drawing. I have worked with clay both in my practice and in my working life since this time – it has been since attending The Clay School in West End in 2017 that I have been exploring ceramics more seriously within my my art practice.
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