adapt day 6 /Broken (but) Still life by Pique Assiette Artist Cracktpot Jo

While quite in the gallery, I was able to have a think about still life as a tradition, while looking at the still life by Jo Ferguson (Cracktpot Jo). There are many good reasons why this classic subject shouldn't be undervalued. There is a quietness to arrangement and to capturing one, sometimes saying so much more than expected. The phrase itself taking on new meanings this year.

Broken (but) Still Life' was made during the first lockdown. “During a flurry of creativity I had a strong need to paint. To make a still life, a simple image, clean and reflective. I found myself creating my first one dimensional piece.  Copying pots that, as it turned out, take me back to my childhood. The Denby coffee pot and blue and white ginger jar being around my childhood home. Mum's collection of ginger jars often had lost buttons, pennies, stubs of pencils and bits and bobs in the bottom that my small inquisitive fingers would seek out. The Coffee pot used for gravy or dissolving stock cubes for her soups. Without realising at the time during lockdown I was making a comforting image of comforting memories. Pique assiette mosaics reflect and transfer a previous history, a past life into a new image or object for now and in this case the comfort of unconditional love.”

You can see three of Jo’s pieces on display at the gallery until Sunday at 4.30pm. Jo will also be having a stall at the Outdoor Christmas Makers Market on Sunday 10.30am-3.30pm at the studios.