CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS BY ANA ILLUECA
Illueca
Ana Illueca is a ceramic artist whose artisanal designs are transformed by moments and spaces. Her designs and colours are nourished by her passion for traditional pottery from Valencia, where she is from, reinterpreting the medium in a more contemporary style. Her artworks display a direct connection with the clay, using her hands as the main tool and generator of original ideas and concepts.
Greatest inspirations and influences?
I am inspired by my own and other people's emotions and relationships. I observe tensions and challenges and translate them into ceramic pieces. On a formal level, I find my inspiration in the ceramic tradition of my environment.
Tell us about your creative process.
I usually start by observing my emotions and needs. Sometimes they are very autobiographical but since I speak of universal truths, they easily connect with the people who see and touch them. I start outlining the idea, developing it with pencil and paper, but soon I take it to the lathe. There the hands make creative decisions as well, but always with a base worked on the concept. Then I enter into a ceramic investigation on materials and pigments that can be infinite but that I usually stop when the piece reaches its maturity. It is a very slow process. You have to have security to work with the uncertainty of whether you will be doing a good project.
How has the pandemic affected your creativity?
Many pieces have resulted from that stop. The silence allowed ideas to appear. And many of my pieces focused on the concept of home, the inhabited space, which came from my own need.
Icons in your opinion?
We should look for reference all around us: friends, parents, bosses. Each one of us has fought a great battle and we have become icons.
What does wellbeing mean to you?
Wellbeing is an axis that crosses physical and mental health, which is always close to happiness and which must be worked on every day. They should teach us in school how to work on our wellbeing. In my case I practice yoga, I do meditation and sports daily. It helps me stay focused and strong. I make large pieces that require me to be strong.
"The silence allowed ideas to appear. Many of my pieces focused on the concept of home, the inhabited space, which came from my own need."
Ana IlluecaHer artworks display a direct connection with the clay, using her hands as the main tool and generator of original ideas and concepts. The ceramic tradition of Valencia, reinterpreted. Each piece a slow investigation into materials and pigments that stops only when the work reaches its maturity.
You have to have security to work with the uncertainty.
The hands make creative decisions too.
Read more artists working in clay at ninunina.com/ceramic-art.
