Ground Breaking Crafts

Katherine PeachCreative

We love to shine a spotlight on independent artists and creators all across South Wales, so we spoke to Dr Natasha Mayo, a ceramicist and sculptor who has recently moved into The Clockyard at Rowley’s the Jewellers who has created some stunning pieces for Rowley’s the Jewellers.

What inspires your craft?

It is the very stuff of clay that inspires me. It’s an incredibly sociable material interwoven through histories, geographies and physical encounters. I think of ceramics as being a ‘living’ practice, already a part of the ground we walk on, the construction of our homes and the containers we ear and drink from. So there is a sense in which anything we make from it, is already familiar. Now that’s a powerful attribute for an artist!

What is the biggest challenge you face within your craft? How do you overcome it?

The biggest challenge for me is time or achieving better management of it! In being a mother of three and programme director of ceramics at CardiffMet, I have previously had little reserve of time to practice. That is all changing (not the motherhood bit!) Like many people, Covid-19 has caused self-reflection, and isolation has caused me to recognise the wealth of creative subject matter that arises from my home.

Over the years, we have created a king of material -lore captured in the acts of drawing along walls, stairs, hallways and landings, informing your periphery of the fictitious, the factual and playful events of our family. This has prompted me to start a R&D project called ‘Flight Lines’ that seeks to identify the dynamic of a ‘cumulative practice’, a way of creating that arises from the interaction of a number of forces, a common negotiation of women artists but one not specifically identified and championed as a strength in creative terms. Here creativity weaves in and out of the studio and ‘life as it is lived’.

The project is supported by the NMW as it is an approach that finds intriguing historical precedent in the work of Gwen John, in that her prolific letter writing captures contextual and personal insight informing interpretation of her paintings- with the letters we can recognise extraordinary intersections of thought that expand and enrich understanding of her creativity.

The project ‘Flight Lines’ will take as its inspiration John’s accumulative and intersecting practice and through the very different corollaries of my own, establish a contemporary, living example over the course of the next 2 years.

I don’t know if this will overcome my lack of time in which to practice, but it will give shared purpose to family, studio and inform my teachings so I wont be pulled in different directions!

How influential is social media to you?

I haven’t got into the practice of using social media for my own practice, although I am beginning to for this project. I run the ceramics Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts and it is invaluable for networking and addictive. I need to get going!

Do you have a favourite project you’ve worked on?

My favourite project has been ‘Beyond Borders’ where I organised storytellers, musicians, illustrators, poets, sculptors, writers, archaeologists, geologists, historians together to draw parallels between the movement of the earth and the movement of man to encourage debate about journeying and asylum. It was an amazing experience to understand how creativity can be used to alight curiosity and awareness of situations often too politicised or complex to communicate in other ways.

Do you like to stay on trends, or create your own path?

I enjoy researching and so need to appreciate contemporary practices in order to understand my contribution to it in making, writing and teaching.

How did you come across this craft?

I first found clay on my PGCE in Birmingham back in 1997 and taught ceramics whilst on placement at the teacher has slipped a disk so if I didn’t step up it wouldn’t have been taught. Luckily she was a great teacher!

Supporting independent artists and creators is important to our community, and showcasing this talent is what we do best. Make sure to check out Natasha’s work online at www.natashamayoceramics.com