Artist Bio:

 

Devorah Samet Canter is a San Francisco, California-based ceramic sculptor who specializes in hand-built sculptural containers and painted bowels.

 

Devorah received her B.F.A. in Printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1981 and Masters Degree in Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1986.  

 

After spending 12 years as an entrepreneur in the multimedia software industry and raising 3 children, Devorah returned to working with clay. She is a full-time artist at Red Brick Studio in the Mission District of San Francisco.

 

Devorah has been working as a ceramic artist for over 11 years. Her art and ideas are inspired by artists Ruth Asawa, Eva Hesse, Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon and Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

 

Devorah’s work has been displayed in the Galleries of San Francisco City College,  Red Brick Open Studios in the Mission District of San Francisco, San Joaquin Delta College, LH Horton Jr. Gallery and Siskiyou Museum in Dunsmuir, California.  

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Artist Statement:

 

Clay has an awareness of its own and yet once becoming familiar with its temperament, it can be manipulated; even brought back to life after seemingly gone.  Its’ nature as an adaptable form and medium for artistic expression opens up worlds of creative possibilities, integrating multiple senses, motivating yet quieting the sculptors’ concentration while exercising their fingers and opening their eyes.

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Clay’s flexible characteristic allows me to combine elements of design, color, skill, and playfulness in the construction of a sculpture.  My recent series titled “Spirals of Ascending Complexity” represents the fragile harmony of life and movement, time, balance and focus in contrast to a chaotic world of destruction and irreverence.  

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My ceramic sculptures are hand built and painted with low fire glazes.  Stamps and molds are used to form imprints on clay surfaces to display a collage in clay effect. Starting from a circular base, building upwards, I create three-dimension vessels that illustrate landscapes, images from nature, figures and abstract forms to portray a narrative relief.

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Clay cutouts of waves, birds, circles and other shapes are woven together to create complex patterns of elaborate designs. Upon observing or meditating on these fanciful structures the viewer can visualize a manifestation of one’s life, a cultural artifact or a container embodying personal history and stories.

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Weaving the wave in clay is a metaphor I use to describe the process of developing this work as I continue to explore the symbolic meaning of water, oceans and movement in contrast and comparison to the cycles of life.

 

 

 

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