Emily Marston works in small batches to create minimalist ceramic artworks, influenced by nature and architectural design. She lives and works in East Oxford and as well as making, she's mum to two young sons.
How did you get into working with clay as a medium?
I had taken pottery classes as a child and worked with clay a little at school but I’d never taken this any further until about eight years ago. A close friend invited me to join her in making some pots at her home and I fell in love with clay immediately.
My practice grew organically, and I’ve mostly experimented, researched techniques and taught myself. I helped out at Kina Gorska’s ceramics studio in Oxford and Kina was so generous with her time and knowledge, which was really helpful in developing my practice.
A period of illness when my eldest son was a toddler meant that I made a decision to pause and reset, and realised that I wanted to focus on making artwork again. The link between creativity and wellbeing became really apparent to me and dedicating time to exploring ideas through clay was a real turning point.
I was excited to see how things would unfold as I worked around my young family, and initially with Creative Dementia Arts Network too.
What does an average day look like if you’re spending it making?
I like to start as early as possible, as this is when I can focus best. If I’m making I try to set a short timer and create something in a sketchbook – collage, painting or drawing-to get my head in the right place. If I’m starting a new set of works, I make all of the patterned slabs first so that when I start to assemble them into a composition, I can stay in the flow of making. I’m getting better at taking a break in the day to get outside; I’ll usually walk or cycle to the river which is close by and a huge source of inspiration.
How do you choose a subject/new piece to work on? Do you have a bank of ideas/sketches/reference material?
I do have lots of sketchbooks and notebooks, and will often look back through them. When starting a new piece, I will go with what’s drawing me in the most in that moment. Sometimes ideas will sit in my notebook for years whilst I work through technical details of construction etc. or until it feels like the right time.
What other things take up your working hours, and do you enjoy any of the more mundane aspects of art life?
In a way, it’s the dream to be always making but I do enjoy some of the other areas too. I really like working on the website and documenting work. Researching and experimentation – both in clay and other mediums are also really important. Marketing I’ve found the most challenging but it’s been interesting to learn more about this over the years.
Have you always been a full-time professional artist, or did you have another career prior to that?
Most recently, I worked on the visual arts programme at Arts at Old Fire Station. When I first started working on the project, the building was being renovated, and was the first of its kind to host an arts centre and Crisis Skylight centre under one roof. The opportunity came up for me to design and curate the gallery, and shop for independent artists and makers within the Old Fire Station from scratch.
Six months, and a huge and amazing learning curve later, we opened our doors to the public. Initially we worked with around 120 artists and makers in the shop, in addition to exhibitions changing at least monthly in the gallery, and residencies too. It was a joy working with so many fantastic artists, The Old Fire Station is a wonderful hub of artistic activity, with values I really resonate with. I continued to manage the visual arts programme across the building until 2017.
Prior to this, I curated exhibitions and arts events independently in and around Oxford, providing opportunities for early career artists. We used empty shops and spaces within the city and also worked with local organisations like Modern Art Oxford, OVADA and Oxford Castle.
What other things inspire your work (or just make you happy!)?
I’m influenced by lots of people in my life – friends and family, as well as artists working sustainably, architects that fully embrace, and work with nature. It’s usually when I’m outside, or deep in the making process that ideas pop into my head.
I’ll take lots of photographs when I’m outside on walks - I find that I’m always spotting and capturing contrasting elements and I’m drawn to expanses of sky and water too. I live close to the river and I’ll walk and cycle there as much as I can, drawing visual inspiration from the local landscape, and just from being near water.
I worked predominantly in photography towards the end of my fine art degree, and it plays a big role in how I experiment with ideas and connect them together.
How has your style developed over the years, and why?
When I first started working with clay, I almost immediately knew I wanted to put colour into the body of the clay, rather than onto the surface of the pot, and I started to research if, and how this was possible. I came across Agateware and Nerikomi techniques and spent time researching and experimenting with these processes.
As I was making, this patterning process became looser, and I was really interested in the layering of the clay and how patterns and colours would interact, which included a lot of experimentation.
I always saw the fronts of the vases or any patterned areas as a blank canvas and with my shape vase collection it’s been really interesting to use a set of forms and explore the surface within this. The patterning process is very intuitive and I find that I can personally be much more free than I would if I was painting, as there is the remove between laying out patterns and the way in which they change and flow as I roll them out into a useable slab.
Over time, the way in which I worked gradually changed and I was finding that I was moving more towards creating works that were standalone artworks, rather than functional pieces. This year, I’ve dedicated some time working on these ceramic wall pieces and I was finding that the process changed and developed each time I created a body of work.
I think all of the techniques, technical skills and ideas can all feed into each other, and I’ll come back to certain techniques I’ve used years before if they work for the piece.
What sort of response do you hope your work provokes in people?
I don’t think I set out to make work that felt calm, but this is often a comment I receive from others, and I can definitely see that. Perhaps it follows on from the influence through water and nature that for me have this effect too.
If you could go back and meet your younger artistic self, would you have any advice for them?
I’d say that however you want to make, that’s okay. I think I was stuck for a while in needing to explain why I was making something, before I made it – but I tend to work the other way around. I have to let ideas about percolate. There are many ways to create, and play, experimentation and following your instinct are all good ways to do this.
· Check out our collection of Emily's ceramics