ARTIST STATEMENT

In 2008, after extensive experimentation, I invented a world first method of getting intricate drawings, images and photographs onto clay using only an inkjet printer and ceramic under glaze or oxide powder. My new method using the damp clay/dry oxide principle does not destroy the printer, is highly suitable for schools and finished prints can be draped, formed and coloured. It was featured in the Nov. 2008 edition of Australian Ceramics and recently in Ceramics Technical 2010. The current series “Only Believe” is a testament to my own belief in man’s ability to push boundaries and throws out a challenge to reach out and touch the source of creation.  Extinct creatures often appear in narrative images, sometimes vulnerable, surrounded by hosts of representational cartoon characters that beckon the viewer to “only believe”. Cartoon characters represent rescuers or heroes so that there is always the juxtaposition of strength and vulnerability in images, with something fragile or extinct having to be saved. A complex print is achieved by combining drawings, etchings, photos and words worked in Photoshop.  With my new method limitless imagery can emerge from clay with perfect lucidity.

Jenny Hodge  2010