We’re back with another update from one of our ArtKeeper Artists. The time has flown by, but the impact the artists have had on HOTA will last a lifetime.
If you caught our Check-In with Dani Cabs, you’ll know the drill. This is your chance to see what the artists have been up to and find out a little more about who they are beyond their work.
This week we’re getting creative with Michelle Le Plastrier.
Ceramicist extraordinaire Michelle has taken a community minded approach to her work here at HOTA. Bringing together kids and adults, she’s led conversations about daunting subjects (think climate change, evolution, and our changing world), encouraging us all to think creativity about the issues we face.
#A little bit from Michelle Le Plastrier
Your Challenge: Summarise the start of your artistic career in 10 words or less.
MLP: Started with design. Needed a more tactile experience. Studied ceramics.
You’re best known for your distinctive 3D ceramic works, but you’ve created many 2D works as well – is there an interconnection between these two forms in your overall practice?
MLP: There is definitely a link in the content between the 2D and 3D work. I like to work with patterns and colour as a device to incite nostalgia or joy. I try to make my works very joyful in their aesthetic and I also think this can help lead to a larger audience being attracted to the work to read the messaging behind it.
Having now completed two community workshops, do you have any early insights you’d like to share? Things that surprised or delighted?
MLP: It was such a wonderful experience connecting with the community and discussing what can actually be really daunting topics, climate change and evolution. People were really on board with the project and we got to explore these concepts in really interesting ways. Getting people to think outside the box was a really fun exercise and together we created some pretty fantastical creatures. I separated the workshops into two, one focused on adults and one focused on kids and it was definitely surprising to see how much kids already knew and understood. The takeaways from both were invaluable insights, more science-based answers from the adult workshops and more creative outside-of-the-box thinking from the kids. I can't wait to share some of the work.
Which part of HOTA’s ArtKeeper program excites you the most?
MLP: The ability to have the time to dig deeper into a concept than I would be able to without the program and the access to connect with community through HOTA's networks and audience.
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