October presenter Elizabeth Paley

Alongside music, my background in physics and math informs my art. Physics governs the relationships between the forms and surfaces of my zigzag and swoosh pots. I cut or swipe patterns into slipped cylinders; these expand into captivating organic designs as I stretch the pots from the inside. Friction torques vertical lines into spirals, parallel swooshes drift apart or scrunch together, and coarse canyons emerge between smooth-slipped plateaus. The transformations are different every time, functions of variables both within and beyond my control: initial patterns, depths of cuts, slopes of curves, plasticity of clay bodies, magnitude of expansion, directional spin of the wheel. Occasionally, fortuitous scars appear: an un-wedged air bubble pops and flattens to hug the pot’s surface, or a narrow fault line cracks open as the clay stretches to its limits. I enjoy how this rough evidence of material and process juxtaposes with well-practiced symmetry.

Name/Topic of Presentation: Texture and Torque

Description of presentation: I use kitchen gadgets to texture slipped cylinders that I then stretch from the inside with ribs. As the wheel spins, the ribs drag against the clay, torqueing the pot: vertical cuts expand into spirals, and parallel swipes drift apart or scrunch together depending on their angle and the directional spin of the wheel.