Bert the Potter
The Inc programme has provided me with a studio and community that were focused on the same goals as me at a crucial time in my early career as a potter. Inc Space has fostered an attitude of independence, professionalism and progression, along with the opportunity to ‘go it alone’ without leaving the institutional support system of CSAD’s exceptional staff and facilities.
My pots are simple, paired back things that focus on materiality, mark making and process for their aesthetic presence. To execute objects in the way that I want to demanded skill and technical knowhow that I was yet to achieve at the beginning of the incubation program. I have by no means arrived at some mystical final destination in terms of my skills, ideas and aesthetic, but the quiet focus Inc Space has provided over the last 6 months has given me the chance to take confident and marked steps down the proverbial path to realising myself as the artist and maker that I aspire to be.
It seems to me a rare thing to find the peace and the focus required to make real progress, to learn skills and to make good art in a bustling contemporary life: I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to find these things in a community that I know and love through the Inc Space programme.
The pots pictured are mainly works in progress that I have produced at my home studio after the sudden shift from studio life into lockdown life. The artistic and intellectual inquiry that I had begun in Inc Space has continued to unfold at home in the quiet of lockdown and the photographs that I have chosen form a statement of intent for my future practice as a potter and artist.
Mae’r rhaglen Inc wedi darparu stiwdio a chymuned i mi a oedd yn canolbwyntio ar yr un nodau â mi ar adeg dyngedfennol yn fy ngyrfa gynnar fel crochenydd. Mae Inc Space wedi meithrin agwedd o annibyniaeth, proffesiynoldeb a dilyniant, ynghyd â’r cyfle i ‘fynd ar ei liwt eich hun’ heb adael system cymorth sefydliadol staff a chyfleusterau eithriadol Ysgol Gelf a Dylunio Caerdydd.
Mae fy mhotiau yn bethau syml, wedi’u paru yn ôl ac yn canolbwyntio ar berthnasedd, gwneud marciau a phrosesu ar gyfer eu presenoldeb esthetig. I weithredu gwrthrychau yn y ffordd yr wyf am fynnu sgiliau a gwybodaeth dechnegol nad oeddwn eto i’w cyflawni ar ddechrau’r rhaglen ddeori. Nid wyf wedi cyrraedd rhyw gyrchfan derfynol gyfriniol o ran fy sgiliau, syniadau ac esthetig o bell ffordd, ond mae’r ffocws tawel y mae Inc Space wedi’i ddarparu dros y 6 mis diwethaf wedi rhoi cyfle imi gymryd camau hyderus a marcio i lawr y llwybr diarhebol i sylweddoli fy hun fel yr arlunydd a’r gwneuthurwr yr wyf yn dyheu am fod.
Mae’n ymddangos i mi yn beth prin dod o hyd i’r heddwch a’r ffocws sy’n ofynnol i wneud cynnydd go iawn, i ddysgu sgiliau ac i wneud celf dda mewn bywyd cyfoes prysur: Rwy’n hynod ddiolchgar fy mod wedi cael cyfle i ddod o hyd i’r pethau hyn mewn cymuned yr wyf yn ei hadnabod ac yn ei charu drwy’r rhaglen Inc Space.
Mae’r potiau yn y llun yn bennaf yn weithiau ar y gweill yr wyf wedi’u cynhyrchu yn fy stiwdio gartref ar ôl y newid sydyn o fywyd stiwdio i fywyd yn y cyfnod cloi. Mae’r ymholiad artistig a deallusol a ddechreuais yn Inc Space wedi parhau i ddatblygu gartref yn nhawelwch y cloi ac mae’r ffotograffau yr wyf wedi’u dewis yn ffurfio datganiad o fwriad ar gyfer fy ymarfer yn y dyfodol fel crochenydd ac arlunydd.
