	Melanie BROWN (Wales) Dates: b.1954 Melanie Brown studied ceramics at Bristol (BA Hons) and Cardiff School of Art (MA). She has had her own studio since 1978 and has exhibited throughout the UK and in Japan, America and Europe She received a Creative Wales award from the Arts Council of Wales in 2004 and was selected for the National Eisteddfod in the same year where she received much critical acclaim. In 2005 she exhibited at SOFA in Chicago with The Gallery at Ruthin Craft Centre where she had a sell-out show. She makes teapots and is fascinated by the three dimensional jigsaw puzzle that is necessary in order to get the four elements of body, lid, spout and handle to marry and work together to form the whole. She throws and turns all the work in porcelain responding to its whiteness and purity contrasting with the vibrant oriental glazes. The clay is high fired giving it hardness and durability. Even where the groups of pieces are sculptural in content the integrity of function is part of the aesthetic consideration. The craftsmanship and ergonomic within each piece is potentially part of its beauty. She uses the teapot as a metaphor for the human condition. Presented in sets they become synonymous with tribal or familial groups, gangs or club members. The dome pieces explore the human predilection for the preservation of memory and of imbuing objects with meaning and worth. The also allude to the way status and value is elevated when the object, however lowly, is placed behind glass in a museum. The family portrait is treasured and full of meaning in one context but may be of interest only as a social document in another.

Melanie BROWN (Wales)

Dates: b.1954

Melanie Brown studied ceramics at Bristol (BA Hons) and Cardiff School of Art (MA). She has had her own studio since 1978 and has exhibited throughout the UK and in Japan, America and Europe She received a Creative Wales award from the Arts Council of Wales in 2004 and was selected for the National Eisteddfod in the same year where she received much critical acclaim. In 2005 she exhibited at SOFA in Chicago with The Gallery at Ruthin Craft Centre where she had a sell-out show.

She makes teapots and is fascinated by the three dimensional jigsaw puzzle that is necessary in order to get the four elements of body, lid, spout and handle to marry and work together to form the whole. She throws and turns all the work in porcelain responding to its whiteness and purity contrasting with the vibrant oriental glazes. The clay is high fired giving it hardness and durability. Even where the groups of pieces are sculptural in content the integrity of function is part of the aesthetic consideration. The craftsmanship and ergonomic within each piece is potentially part of its beauty. She uses the teapot as a metaphor for the human condition. Presented in sets they become synonymous with tribal or familial groups, gangs or club members. The dome pieces explore the human predilection for the preservation of memory and of imbuing objects with meaning and worth. The also allude to the way status and value is elevated when the object, however lowly, is placed behind glass in a museum. The family portrait is treasured and full of meaning in one context but may be of interest only as a social document in another.