This body of work emerged from unrehearsed, intuitive conversations between the physicality of the materials and the sensibility of my hands, capturing the energy, movement, fluidity, and unconscious flow of thoughts that arise in the moments of creation, unencumbered by result.

Developing the condition of Rheumatoid Arthritis, which compromised the use of my hands as a wheel-based production potter, became an obstruction on the creative path I had carved out for myself. This MA research has gifted me with the opportunity to reconsider the centrality of my hands in my practice and the concept of embracing obstacles as opportunities. The research was led by a continuous mark making process through drawing, painting, and clay which allowed me to reconnect to my inner visual voice and became the creative building blocks for the work to evolve from.

I have reflected on the value of kinaesthetic intelligence and the embodied knowledge of the hands, as they physically engage with material. Thinking through making, moving through matter to create material thoughts, have invited new ways to engage and work with them.

Exploring the concept of embracing chaos and obstacles, have allowed me to respond to limitations, unpredictability, and spontaneity in constructive ways. Chaos and lack of control are often seen and felt as destructive negative forces to resist and fear, but, if embraced, we allow ourselves to become flexible, fluid, open to respond, grow, and adapt, like flowing water that always finds a path.

Through this process I have developed a method of building paintings with clay. These expressive art pieces are a form of ceramic action or matter painting. I work with clay on a flat surface to create marks and compositions, adding, spreading, and moving various coloured clay bodies. The clay canvasses are then restructured and assembled into three-dimensional works. Drawing, painting, and ceramic processes form a symbiotic relationship and are a perpetual experimental process, not concluded outcomes were separation, finality or confinement exist.