Clairy Laurence

"I make what I wish to be surrounded by, and encourage the same practice in others..," Clairy Laurence. Clairy Laurence, a Brisbane-based ceramicist with over 30 years of experience, was born into a family of potters. Having originally sought a career in jewellery making, Clairy found herself following the footsteps of her mother and grandfather as she realised she too had a knack for sculpting clay into life. The minutiae and precision in her current practice speaks of the potential jeweller she may have become. Favouring muted saccharine and high-gloss hard blacks and lustres, Laurence’s use of colour implies the interfaces between life and death, good and evil that characterise her work. Floral and leaf motifs– symbolic of rebirth and renewal – represent her foray into more improvised forms and the unpredictable shapes found in nature. These symbols appear in various scales across her work, and form the structural basis of her ceramic tableware. Each piece possesses its own idiosyncrasies, from the aesthetics and of its' glaze and lustre, down to its unique personality. Clairy's ceramics have been exhibited in galleries throughout South East Queensland and widely acquired by a dedicated collectorship.