Marice Cumber : I AM GOING TO FLY / WATCH ME SOAR

We are delighted to be exhibiting Marice Cumber's newest works inspired from her artist in residency in Nice this Summer.
She says of her series of blue and white beakers; "I made this series of beakers whilst on a recent ceramics residency in the South of France and where I was immediately struck by the very very blue skies that I saw every day on my way to the studio and all around me and so I wanted to directly refer to this rich, deep and intense blue in the work I made during my time there".

Marice's work is hand built from stoneware clay, which is then painted with slips, underglazes and oxides before being fired and glazed. The motifs are part of her mark making process that draws on symbols used in, or as, ethnic identities, everyday objects, folk art and visual and ancient languages. They are all personal decorations and patterns that Marice feels connected to and which give her meaning. 

Marice took a long break as a ceramicist and didn't go back to creating until she was 57 having spent a successful career in the art charity sector, (she is Founding Director of Accumulate The Art School For The Homeless). Her ceramics have developed as a visual and narrative response to her life. All of the work contains actual texts from her diaries and communicates deeply personal and private statements about her emotional struggles and responses to life experiences. These diary texts were never intended for an audience but have now, through the creative process, become bold, confessional advertisements that she proudly proclaims and takes ownership of.  In doing so, her work speaks to us all and the universality of sharing our lows and our highs with her is irresistible. She is able to reverse stigmas, shame, and hiding from others the pain and challenges in life. Each work becomes an open dialogue between the artist and the viewer where we share in her positivity and humour and have a regard to what's important in life and how to live it to the full.