"The allusions to Zen Buddhism and to the time-honored ceramic traditions in Japan are presented in Sunset Temple in a fresh and captivating way. The work is a wonderful enhancement to the National Museum of American Art's holdings in clay."

Elizabeth Broun, Director, NMAA, Smithsonian Institution

ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

My ceramic pieces are recent reflections on communion and connection. When I think of times alone in deep communion, I realize they are the supreme moments of offering, of opening oneself to the universe. In my studio, I create mystical temples evocative of oriental architecture in my search for a way to symbolize the soul's journey beyond time and space.

Elements of Japanese architecture and culture touch each piece: Torii gates, dragonflies, Samurai armor, castles, fortresses, farmhouses, rice windows, thresholds, steps. These vessels act as metaphor for the empty space inside, the center of longing and communion, much as a cathedral acts as a vessel for transmittal of prayer, the cranium as a vessel for thought. The empty space inside the temple, not the form, intrigues me. Thresholds, steps, windows...I want to amplify the willingness to enter--through a door, a passage, even a broken gate--uncharted territory.

As I am a dreamer, many forms are pillow-like, often embellished with thresholds to signify entering into the dream state. I think that dreams and art shift perception, expressing ineffable moods and offering the soul a healing balm, an insight, a respite. A temple is, perhaps, the physical manifestation of the soul's longing to touch the infinite, meet the divine. My clay temples and fortresses, forged in the flames of a firing, represent spiritual journeys: those quests of the soul, which transcend time, place, nationality, race. Quests unseen yet nonetheless real.

Everywhere I want to journey seems to be spiritual. To temples, shrines, places long out of use, places for contemplation of time and civilizations gone by, places for solace, places of the soul. The relics I create take me back in time to such places of mystery and beauty. Floating Pagodas for leisurely picnics, Palanquins for secret assignations, Magic Carpets, Cleansing Fonts, old placestime gone by.... quiet places.... Fortresses, places of protection...Temples, places of solace, places of prayer.

Biennial Artist in 1995 for the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu and considered one of the leading ceramists in Hawaii, Arabella received the 1995 ARTISTS OF HAWAII Alfred Preis Memorial Award for Achievement in the Arts. She was the Invited Artist for the ARTISTS OF HAWAII show at the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1989. The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts' selected her work for both the thirty-year RETROSPECTIVE 1967-1997 and the twenty-year RETROSPECTIVE 1967-1987 exhibitions.

For eleven years, she owned and operated a co-operative gallery in Honolulu. Her ceramics also grace the new Hawaii State Convention Center. Her work has been highlighted in Tim Andrew's RAKU, Ceramics Monthly, RAKU by Robert Piepenburg, Alistair Young's Setting Up a Pottery Workshop, Australia's Ceramics: Art and Perception, Raku, A Handbook, John Mathieson, Raku: Investigations into Fire, David Jones.

Her work is often shown in special exhibitions at the American Craft Museum in New York, Contemporary Ceramics in London, the Fumiki Gallery in San Francisco, and the Dearing Galleries in Taos. Her Hana, Maui studio is open by appointment.

BIOGRAPHY

Arabella Ark's pottery forms an alliance with the forces of nature, which have created the beautiful Hawaiian Islands where she lives:

"Clay forms seemingly blown from the mouth of a volcano...or torn from Hawaii's shores."

Candace Charlot, Waikiki Press

Ceramic artist Arabella Ark has distinguished herself in the art world by her large-scale, architectural ceramic forms, lending them a feeling of mystery and antiquity by firing in the raku tradition. She is a self-taught clay artist, working in England and Hawaii.

As a hand-builder, Arabella constructs her pieces from rolled slabs of porcelain clay or from paper-clay fiber. Most of her work is sculptural, including large 2-D tablets for wall mounting. She fires in all styles (raku, pit, electric, gas) and temperature ranges (low, high, oxidation, reduction), but finds particular enjoyment and beauty in the raku-firing process.

The artist nurtures and honors the unexpected changes the fire makes on her work during this process. Her ceramic vessels have been exhibited in numerous US juried shows for the past twenty-eight years and toured internationally in Japan and the European Union.

Arabella explored electric kiln smoke firing and kiln building during two residencies at Rufford. She also has extensive teaching experience at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and community colleges, and leads ceramics workshops around the world.

E-Mail: arabella@arkceramics.net
Telephone: 808.248.4890
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 667, Hana, Maui, HI 96713
Website: www.arkceramics.net