Tracy Shell
Omaha, NE
www.tracyshell.com

My desire to create is fueled by a primal attraction to the ceramic media. The responsive nature of clay allows for an extremely sensitive record of process I find profoundly intimate. The patient and careful rhythm of pinching and coiling demands that I remain in the present relying on intuition to dictate the direction of a form. Each piece is the artifact of a singular conversation with the medium. Engaging in a routine of action and reaction, the act of making becomes a symbiotic relationship between my personal experience and material.
I have chosen the vase as an archetype because of its vast expressive potential within the context of function. I am drawn to the context of utility because it can bring objects of exquisite beauty and profound meaning into the realm of everyday experience. That said, the intent of these forms is not limited to sound engineering.
My current work has evolved from an elemental impulse to create objects of sensual beauty. The forms are biomorphic abstractions that use delicate undulation and tactile surface to invoke the private intimacy of the human body. Pathways to interior volume are guarded and mysterious, yet fertile, bearing flowers as their offspring.