Work Samples
Naomi Clement
I don’t quite know how to explain it, this compulsion for making things, for making pots, this almost obsessive need to make forms out of clay. It’s actually quite ridiculous. I mean, do we really need more things? After all, you can get a perfectly serviceable, decent looking mug at Ikea for less than a dollar. I can’t compete with that. No matter how much of a control freak I am, I could never make anything that “perfect”, and no matter how hard I work I could never match that level of production. So I don’t even try. In fact, I would say that I make my pots in the face of this commercial production, thumbing my nose at all this uniformity and conspicuous consumption, our voracious appetite for newer, faster and cheaper.
We make little time for beauty in our daily lives. Flying though our days, rushing from one thing to the next, we choose things because they are quick and convenient, rather than because they are beautiful and make us smile. Our modern world is full of so much that is nameless and soulless: objects that have no identity other than what we bring to them. I was lucky enough to grow up in a home where the art didn’t match the furniture, and where I could have my favourite bowl for cereal and another one for tomato soup. So I can tell you from experience that life is different when you choose to surround yourself with objects that already have a story when they reach you. There is a different tenor to your day when you allow the objects you use to become part of the fabric of your life, rather than mere accessories.
I don’t make things to be trendy or because I hope they will match your kitchen cabinets (although that’s always a bonus). Rather, I make pots in the hope that they will become your old friends, that they will make you happy when you use them, and that they will weave themselves into your daily life and story. And lastly, I make pots because I like to, and because I’m compelled to.
Naomi Clement has a B.F.A Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
