Video: Seize the Clay
Seattle-based artist Lily Gray creates ceramic and glass artworks that serve as a reflection of her upbringing and personal experiences.
Video by Jake Isom
Utilizing the medium of ceramics and glass, artist Lily gray creates functional and abstract works of expression in her Seattle studio, the Inscape Arts and Cultural Center. The formation of these objects allows Lily to work and grow through her personal struggles and experiences as well as question her place in the contemporary world. Explore the modern world through sculpting with Lily Gray in Seize the Clay
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcqRM9FG2G8[/embed]
Click here to read Isom’s article about Lily Gray and her art.
Transcript
00;00;07;08–00;00;37;18
Lily Gray
I started like actually getting started in like clay in like high school and stuff. So since that happened, it’s kind of been like on and off for a long time until, like, the last few recent years were really, like, spent way more time investing into what I’m doing. Naturally, I’m like a bit of a tinkerer. I just want to, like, get my little hands on everything and just that’s a way I know that I can, like, learn and interact from something, like feeling its weight feeling the texture just like I want to know all parts about it.
00;00;37;18–00;01;02;13
Lily Gray
I just want to use, like, X-ray vision to like, feel what I’m working on. Clay is actually like the material itself is actually really therapeutic. I guess the way that you can, like, your fingers can glide along the clay and like smooth and compress in a way is like the actor method of working with the material is like a way to also help to like think through ideas, think about what it is I’m working.
00;01;02;13–00;01;31;00
Lily Gray
Why am I spending so much time on this piece? Like what? What does that mean? When you take the time to make something by hand, you are like slowing down and really considering, like, the all the steps and back to kind of process. The amount of times like your hands touch is almost like the love that you’re putting into these things or like constructing these things everything that you’ve touched to, it becomes like part of that object’s memory and story.
00;01;31;14–00;01;55;14
Lily Gray
So like, how can you know, maybe and take some of those ideas and try to transform them into, you know, something that’s, you know, more meaningful. I think about, like, family history a lot in how that relates to my own story, or at least I feel like that, like, my family is so important to me that I think and how much influence they’ve had on my life already.
00;01;55;14–00;02;33;06
Lily Gray
The house is always filled with different plants. We always had a big garden that we would use the food from the garden to, like, nourish our bodies and either like, either for like different types of like meals or like soups that we would use to like heal our bodies. We always had to make, like, we always had to, I guess, like make our culture or make our families and connections like even though there weren’t that many people, and especially from like Hong Kong or spoke Cantonese, my mom was always connecting us to those people.
00;02;33;10–00;03;14;01
Lily Gray
I feel like I’ve always been like a middle person, like spending some time, you know, in with my like, I don’t know, my mom’s family, my Chinese family, having to be like, kind of like, the middle person or like the comfort person in a way. Like, you know, maybe that’s part of the reason, like, I’m so geared towards like making these beautiful objects or things that I feel like hopefully bring people like a sense of comfort or relief, you know, having maybe more than one you know, multiple family members passing and those types of things kind of make you reconsider, like what, what your purpose and what, you know, you want to derive your meaning from
00;03;14;01–00;03;37;09
Lily Gray
and how, how do you want to use your, like, time and talent, I guess, like to bring you to like what do you want to be contributing, I guess, and growing. I feel like in a way that’s kind of led me to being almost a caretaker for these objects and like making them because they’re parts of me. And maybe that’s like but, you know, they’re also for other people.
00;03;37;09–00;03;51;17
Lily Gray
So like it’s not always just for me to do, um, it maybe helps me to process some things. But like in a way, there’s always, like, a path towards like connection to other people.