By Tessy King
ARTIST STATEMENT
Learning that action comes before image by watching my growing-up baby mark-making, discovering; texture, movement, colour and connection. Playing in mud, dirt, sand, with crayons and paper. The somatic experience of gestural movement is layered onto the clay surface by scratching, drawing and painting- shapes that are formulated by where the hand goes before the mind arrives.
BIO
Tess McAuslan-King (she/her) is an artist and mother living and working on Yaegl Country in the Clarence Valley of Northern NSW. Tess works with a variety of clays, layered glazes, lustres and vitreous enamels to investigate materials and processes within her practice. The majority of her works are semi-functional in nature, highly decorative, hand-built vessels or sculptures hinting at the vessel form. Many kiln firings are involved in achieving the layered and luminous surfaces. Tess completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts with First Class Honours at RMIT in 2016, majoring in Object Based Practice. She has exhibited regularly with various commercial galleries and artist run spaces since this time.