“Andre Gide says, ‘Pay attention only to the form; emotion will come spontaneously to inhabit it. A perfect dwelling always finds an inhabitant.’ Emotion fills me when I see perfect forms in nature, from the cracked conch shell on the beach revealing its perfect spiral, to the milkweed pod burst in the field, its brilliant airborne seeds streaming into the sunlight. The ordered symmetry and asymmetry of nature’s forms reveal the growth of life, the movement of life. Living on Martha’s Vineyard, island time, especially in the winter, seems to conform to nature’s cycles. As a potter, I strive to make my work reflect the balance of life around me. It is important that the patterns I see around me are integrated into my forms. I use a translucent porcelain body because it has a beautiful surface, and it conveys the qualities of light and shadow that I wish to express. After throwing my vessel on the potter’s wheel, I alter the form to set up a movement of soft shadow. When the porcelain is leather hard, I carve patterns to add energy and counterpoint. I fire my work to cone 10, where the porcelain becomes non-porous and translucent. Some of the finished pieces hold elusive glimpses of the balance between the convex and the concave, and light absorbed and reflected. In further exploration, I marry the fine porcelain with the ancient art of gilding. The 24 carat gold leaf illumines the interior of the vessel, to reveal new curves and patterns.” Jennifer McCurdy has been working with porcelain clay for more than 40 years. After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University she began her “Journey with Porcelain”. She has since become recognized internationally for her swirling sculptures inspired by the natural world. Jennifer and her husband Tom have lived on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts since 1995. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of 22 museums across the US, including the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the American Museum of Ceramic Art. Her work is also included in private collections worldwide. In 2016 President Obama gifted Jennifer’s Gilded Torch Vessel to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India during his visit to the White House. She has been an invited speaker at both the Brazilian and Australian national ceramics conferences. Articles have been written about her and her work for publications in the United Kingdom, China, Egypt, Brazil and the Netherlands. Jennifer’s book Vessels: A Conversation in Porcelain & Poetry, written with her sister Wendy Mulhern, was published in 2017.