My Canadian Landscapes

A couple of days ago I went on about how the Niagara Escarpment must have crept into my soul. I am very proud to present the work of one of my Sheridan students Amber Zuber who is having a show at The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto. Amber lives right smack dab in the heart of Toronto and the textures she has chosen for her landscapes are man hole covers that she made castings

of and then hand built forms. We fired them in the wood kiln over the past month. God, they look stunning.
Here is Amber's artist statement. I think I'll get her to write mine. Congrats, Amber on a very fine body of work.

Amber Zuber
My Canadian Landscape  2013
Wood-fired Stoneware
Various Dimensions

My Canadian Landscape, an exhibition of ceramic objects by Amber Zuber at the Gardiner Museum, opening January 9th to March 2nd, 2014.

Artist Statement     My work engages with concepts of identity.  Through the making of objects that elicit memory, whether experienced or imagined, my work is an investigation of the self and of our attachments.  Interpreting my surroundings in order to re-examine and re-invent, My Canadian Landscape is a wood-fired series that looked to my city block as a muse - the visual identity of Toronto that lies in front, above and below me.  The city manhole covers were my texture and the buildings my form.  Using wood to fuel the kiln, the clay was deliberately left bare in order to allow the natural effects of the flame and ash to adorn the surfaces.  I appreciate the mundane textures and forms of the everyday and these vessels serve as trace souvenirs of my immediate surroundings.