Therese Newman

I’m inspired with the ceramic medium and the delicacy you can achieve with it. My work is concerned with the fragility of life and it is stimulated by the Vanitas tradition of the 17th century Dutch Still Life paintings. I like this tradition as it evokes the strength and harshness of life. The Vanitas paintings contained memento mori (reminders of death) which ranged from skulls, hourglasses, precious objects of great value, fruit, food and flowers. At present I’m concentrating on the skull and flower motifs. The paintings often displayed beautiful textile materials which I find very evocative. I also admire traditional craft media and I have started working on incorporating crochet into my work.