Thursday, March 15, 2007

The Ceramic Art of Saya Moriyasu

I've been wanting to spread the word about the wonderful world of Saya Moriyasu's art for several years... and now I finally have a place to do it. Saya makes beautiful, sweet, soulful characters in clay (and sometimes in 2D) that embody spirit and story. Her clay forms often have a dual function: besides being characters, they are often also lamps, containers and vessels.

Pictured here are two of the members of my personal and prized Saya Moriyasu Collection. The mustachioed trumpet player, when you remove his head, is also a bottle form into which one could put something with a stem. The Lady, whose head is an open vessel, can hold small things that shouldn't be misplaced. She's a nice reminder to me of how we contain needed items in our heads (if we should be so lucky...).

Saya and I became friends in Seattle, WA, in 2002, and I was lucky to spend time in her studio, visiting, and sometimes making small clay works too. Her studio has an atmosphere of positivity, hard work, and constant creativity + productivity. I loved being there. Saya comes from a family of Artists and Engineers, and I see both of these powers carried on and at work in her artistic approach. She has curiosity, can-do-it-ive-ness, and an Experimenter's ability to try different solutions until she finds the right one. Saya recently began a new series of miniatures, which are for sale. Here can see a fun animated showcase of these miniatures. And here you can visit Saya's website to see it all.