anxiety 

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is a new venture into 2D jigsaw-like images which fit into a frame and can be hung on the wall as a painting would. The entire piece including the frame is 45cm x 70 cm. The ceramic is slab built from white earthenware clay, which has then been indented with pattern and fired to 1160c. Coloured glaze has been rubbed into the carving and wiped away, as well as being painted on to the surface area before being fired to 1080c. Coloured enamels, gold lustre and mother-of-pearl have then been applied to some areas of the outside to give more definition, and fired again to 800c.  A final layer of paint has been added and heated to a temperature of 150c to add a metallic raised effect.  When the glazing process has been completed, the ceramic jigsaw pieces have been fitted together and framed in a wooden frame which has a decoupaged surface to  continue the image but in a less defined manner. This work concerns anxiety and its hidden layers, interwoven and camouflaged. From the very obvious scream motif, to the less noticeable shadow figures with monsters lurking in our internal world. The desert shows view of a future; the cactus plant depicts our emotional thirst with defensive, protective spines at the ready. The lizards which hide and live in the rocks patrol our physical presentation. There is a narrow gap between the ceramic and the frame which represents the barrier which separates our internal and external world. The sweet wrappers continue the picture, but it is a pale continuation of the image, which as with anxiety is not as sharply defined as our internal world. Then the outside world full of sugary promise and commercially led is not of any benefit. Signed and dated by the artist January 2013. 
 price £500