Mandy Henebry

The work I create is designed to suggest purpose and engage curiosity and interest through patterns and form. I look at design elements in everyday life such as textile patterns or a beautifully decorated home. I then contemplate over how I can incorporate visual beauty into my work through texture, colored slips,and stenciling by adding those elements to graceful forms. I look at the surface of my forms as a blank canvas.

Influences and inspiration came largely from nature and the repetitive geometric patterns that can occur in nature. Having grown up on a farm in Wyoming, my childhood memories of vast fields of grain flowing in the wind and colorful flowers growing in my grandmother’s gardens define a large portion of my surface design and color pallet. I am also drawn to the clean crisp lines and precision of digitally crated images and the endless possibilities technology continues to play in the world of ceramics. Being able to explore the three-dimensional world of nature and intertwining it with a two-dimensional geometric surface is crucial to my creativity.

Utility is important to me when creating new works. We all have an inherent understanding of function which is why form cannot be dismissed: perfecting the curve on a mug to nestle in your hand as you drink your morning coffee or the bowl that holds the perfect amount of bread dough proves the importance of utility. I enjoy forms that fulfill specific purposes such as salt and pepper shakers, nesting bowls, canister, platters and mugs. With form, clay gives itself focus and the element of purpose. I design pots that I would enjoy using in my own home.