Regina Simas
I was born, raised and educated in Brazil, where I studied Liberal Arts and later ceramics, and where I spent most of my life so far. Last year I moved to the United States; I had met an American musician doing his PhD in Brazil, married, and moved to the United States, where I established a ceramics studio in Western Massachusetts. (I beg your pardon if this statement is not written in native English, but I thinkpeople who read it can both understand it and have a good time laughing at my mistakes.)
I work both with ceramic art and functional ceramics. When working with sculptures, I always look for forms that evoke transformation and movement. My main concern in functional pottery is not to use toxic material and how the decoration of a piece will be welcomed in an environment. I avoid excessive decoration, but do not strictly use 'sober' colors. In the last three years most of my work has had a touch of orange, and also colors which are relaxing and, in my opinion, eternal (in a sense that they have always been pleasant to people): blue, turquoise and blue-green. I usually fire in an electric kiln (cones 6-9); most of my production is stoneware, the rest divided between earthenware and porcelain. I use engobes, engravings, sgrafitto, write on the pieces (with a pen or by engraving), and also brush or spray colorants and underglazes. I tend to work intuitively and enjoy every step of the ceramicprocess. I like the natural and attractive look of stone, such as in pieces made of different stoneware bodies, mixed, rolled and pressed together, leaving the marbled surface unglazed: the raw material itself is gorgeous. I do not always glaze non-functional pieces, sometimesopting to partially glaze them. When glazing I usually dip, spray, or combine both techniques and mix my own glazes. Some of my pieces arepit-fired, for which engobes and colorants are sprayed or brushed ontothe surface of the pieces.
I do not work in series, but repetition is present in my work as insets of pieces (but even they come out different from each other). I do not try to make two pots equally, and appreciate the differences between them. I try to integrate my different interests in my work, such as the relationship between primitive and contemporary art, a taste for installations and humor in art (in the words of William Brouillard, humor in clay has a tradition as old as the use of the material), and Brazilian arts and crafts (Brazil is a country in which multi-cultural influences --Portuguese, African, Indigenous, Japanese, Italian, and others-- are combined to make ceramic arts a mosaic of varied expressions and rich experiences).
I like the idea that my cultural background shows through my work. Ceramics is life, fun, increasing experimentation; it is the process and the target in a continuous talk; it is always the piece which I have not done yet that thrills me. I think ceramists should always experiment with the many different techniques in clay, and should always be open to changes, to different materials and results. Ceramics is an art made of practically infinite combinations and almost endless possibilities (not to mention random effects and personal experiences!)-- that's what is magical about this.
