Sara Wright - Ceramics

Born in the USA in 1979, Sara Wright grew up in Winchester, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley. She received her Bachelor of Arts and minor in Industrial design at Virginia Tech State University in the southwest Appalachian mountains of Virginia. There she was influenced by the practice and lifestyle of the potters teaching and living in surrounding areas and also made summer sojourns to the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina to further her training. Sara migrated to Newcastle NSW for love in 2003 settling in Tasmania in 2006 for the water and wilderness. As well as working as an arts administrator she has exhibited acclaimed bodies of work at regional galleries, won the People’s Choice Award in the 2007 Design Island exhibition, worked under Peter Battaglene, and received the CAST Youth Craft Mentorship to work with Rod Bamford. The death of her younger brother in late 2007 from testicular cancer had a profound effect on her and she now concentrates fully on her ceramic practice. She is currently one of two recipients of the 2010 Moorilla Scholarship. Of her work, she notes:
Ceramic is the material language I choose because of the intimate way it commemorates moments in daily life, our rituals. In ritual we find comfort, control and celebration. My vases are an expression of this—my wish for you—and I hope that they are often filled with flowers for this reason. The way I work with clay is often a direct response to the possibilities and potential of the material itself, but I’m certain that the water and wilderness that I often seek out creep in subconsciously.

When skin is our largest organ, touch is a paramount experience and has influence on us all. The potency of surface texture on a ceramic vessel—the undeniable intimacy—is revealed when caressed by the fingertips or brought up to the lips. The white in my vessels can at first inspire a transient integrity, purity and confidence, but for me white can either inspire an introspective meditation or a sober outward appearance—a restraint that conceals potential, emotion and longing beneath the surface, inside the vessel.