AMY NOEL
Title: Phases: Nesting, Full House, Empty Nest
Dimensions: 5 feet X 2.5 feet
Medium: stoneware
Date Made: June 20, 2019
Retail Price: $900
Artist’s Statement (meaning/inspiration, etc.): Phases is a look at different points of our lives after the “birds and the bees” and references the phrases “nesting”, “full house”, and “empty nest” to understand those certain phases. How many times has the statement been made, “You should enjoy this phase!” By someone in a different one? The young mother, nesting, but who’s body is stretched to the limit, anxious to meet her child. The house next door with toys all over the lawn and kids screaming. The old couple in the house next to them who look on fondly, remembering the rosy version of their own full house. We know we ought to enjoy these phases while we can, they won’t last forever, but it is so hard! Phases is meant to give viewers a moment of reflection on the full scope of all the different phases of their life. Perhaps, for a brief moment in time, we can step out of the phase we are in and appreciate and enjoy (at least some aspects) of where we are now, knowing it won’t last forever. Cone 6 stoneware, epoxy glue. Phases is a 3-piece set, each nest is hung on the wall separately but approximately 2 inches away from the other nests. In Full House there are three feather which dangle below the nest, attached by clear wire.
Title: “Teamwork” honeypot
Dimensions: 10” x 4.5”
Medium: stoneware and porcelain
Date Made: June 10, 2019
Retail Price: $120
Artist’s Statement (meaning/inspiration, etc.): Teamwork is a reflection on the idea that many hands make light work, or it takes a village to raise a child. Bees are a perfect example of this. One bee will produce about 1/16th of a teaspoon of honey in its own life but look at what a whole hive of workers can do!
Just as in a beehive, our own family homes are a reflection of this as well. How much would we be able to get done without partners working alongside of us? Where would we be without caregivers, friends, family, and babysitters? We need our own hive of busy workers in order to reach our goals. Wood texture: cone 6 stoneware clay. Top hive section: cone 6 porcelain. Teamwork includes a micro honeypot with functional lid and spoon, and a large functional honeypot with a honeycomb branch.
Amy Noel attended NSCAD University for 2 years as a non-degree student where her studies included Ceramics. In 2009, she graduated from Mount Saint Vincent University as an art teacher and moved to Japan to teach English in Uozu-Shi, a small “country town.” She then continued to study ceramics while living in Japan for 3 years at a community studio, with an 82-year old Sensei and a Japanese-English dictionary from 1942. Amy moved back from Japan in 2012 and began her own pottery business, Wabi Scotia Pottery, and has been working in ceramics ever since. She sells her work at juried craft shows and online, is a member of the Nova Scotia Potters Guild and participates in their annual group shows.
Amy is inspired by concepts from the philosophy Wabi Sabi, “impermanence in our lives, the imperfect nature of everything, and the beauty of natural, quiet things in nature.” She is also inspired and influenced by her 2 young girls, finding that their childhood adventures filters through her own life and into her work.