amy meya and cathy broski: wall pieces

"Starting at the beginning the most important part of my work is the medium, I feel passionate about clay itself. There is something about taking a lump of mud and forming it into an object that fills a primal urge for me. The intimate and personal nature of ceramic objects stands out against other mediums, for me anyway.

The next step is process, I make stamps, rolling pins, and carve out molds from clay that I fire and use for all the texture in my work, Using tools I have created satisfies my need for originality for each piece.

Clay - the medium from nature - lends itself so perfectly to depictions of nature. My family and I love to camp and hike. There is nothing more peaceful than being in the woods. But even in the city I love staring at the shapes of tree branches, watching flocks of birds swoop across the sky, collecting interesting seed pods, growing gourds and sunflowers in my yard. I guess I just take all the forms that I find interesting and express them through my clay work. Even deeper though, I hope that  a message of appreciation and conservation of nature comes across. If we decimate all the wild areas then we will have no place to retreat when we need some peace." - Amy Meya

"'Radiating Joy' is the title of this piece. I am honored to once again be involved in the Change the Truth Doll Project. This year I tried to project the radiating joy I saw in the photos of the children of St. Mary Kevin Orphanage. My love of using found objects can be seen in the use of the bright yellow a orange telephone wire, the reparation of keys and tags.  I also used recycled glass in the ceramic piece that is the base to work from." - Cathy Broski

For more than two decades Cathy Broski has been exploring figurative work. Recognized for her archetypal figures, she is inspired by weathered surfaces as well as gestures of the living. Her work is steeped in archetypal and personal symbolism. The appreciation of found objects plays a big roll in Cathy’s work. She often uses them and emulates the wear of their journeys on her own surfaces. To accomplish this she uses a layering technique. Since receiving her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1990, Cathy Broski has worked in the ceramics field in many capacities. She shows her work nationally and is an active member of the Kansas City ceramic community.