Views on my work
"I am to the earth as I am to the world."
The artist Isabelle Nothomb engages in an ongoing dialogue with the earth.
A language uniquely shared between them.
Her childhood and upbringing provided her with a broad openness to Creation in all its forms. While her father’s collection of Japanese prints sparked her curiosity, her studies in art history refined her appreciation for Beauty.
From her encounter with clay, the ceramicist derives her strength.
She needs the tactile sensation of the earth between her fingers, allowing herself to be guided by the song of the material.
Intuitive by nature, she embraces the unexpected, but always seeks simplicity through the circular form, which she sees as the very symbol of completeness.
A circle she continually questions.
Her gaze upon the living material reflects her approach to being in the world. In her, there is always curiosity and listening. And ever present, a desire as incandescent as the kiln, where the earth expresses itself for the final time, expanding and contracting with each firing.
The fractures in her pieces, for Isabelle Nothomb, embody the Beauty that lies in authenticity, like an echo of the cracks in the soul.
She elevates them for eternity with a leaf of gold.
This respect for the fragility of the Other reveals her deep, sensitive and attentive artistic nature, which allows her to gently affirm:
"The earth always has the last word."
Theresa Révay, writer
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"Like the dream stones of China, these ceramics are landscapes, grimoires, moments that transcend space and time. One can journey within oneself or into a realm where the scale is always uniquely ours. Meanders, dawns and nights, enchantments, tears and timeless laughter emerge.
Child sleeping within us awakes."
Marie Laure de Cazotte, writer