KATHY ERTEMAN -STATEMENT
There are many ways to approach art making with clay. I adhere to traditional ceramic practices in making sculptural vessels and works for the wall. The study of early 20th-century architecture and design by international modernists contribute to my attitude about form. European ceramists Gertrude and Otto Natzler, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper were my earliest influences. The essence of my work is minimal form activated by its surface treatment. I embrace a modernist aesthetic and employ a reductive approach to formal composition, aiming to eliminate unnecessary details to arrive at an articulate vessel form, one that could work at any scale, and allows for texture and color to become integrated within. Abstract painting with bold texture and complex color informs my fired surface treatments. Albers rich muted palette, and that of Mark Rothko and works of various contemporary painters find their way into my work with ceramic materials. My relationship with the materials is key as I aim for a balance between restraint and spontaneity in both form and surface. The vessel form is both the canvas and the subject, propelled by color and texture exploration. Emotion and gesture quietly find their way into the work. As my craftsmanship skill increases, my desire to control the process lessens. Control versus chance currently plays a larger role in my work as I surrender to the process and allow the clay to speak more freely.