Michelle Gregor

     The figure remains my most reliable point of departure as an artist, a source that, after many years of practice, still feels infinite. Art history offers an inexhaustible treasury of the human form, and it is within that long conversation that my own work finds its footing. I begin with a simple pose, seated, reclining, or standing. From there the figure begins to take its shape, each decision emerging directly and in conversation with the material. The figure steps forward and becomes the canvas. Clay has recorded the human imprint for thousands of years. After many decades of working in this medium I've settled into a haptic understanding with an attentiveness to clay's expressive materiality. Trusting gesture and the spontaneous mark, the working composition unfolds through all stages of making as a dialogue with the material. Beginning with solid construction methods and ending with color applications, slips, glazes, and stains are built up in pools and layers across multiple firings. Pigments are left to pool and move, allowing gravity to contribute its voice within the composition. My hope is that the surface carries the accumulated depth and weight of time passing.