Julie Nelson

My handbuilt vessels are experiments in form and surface texture, pattern and composition. Every piece is a meditation on the variety and beauty of the natural world and my relationship with the materiality of clay. I study a particular form that interests me and create a series of unique hand built explorations that evolve whilst making.

Collections made and found, are used as reference and inspiration. These form the seeds of ideas for groups of objects that interrelate. 

Hand built in stoneware and layered with slips, these universal symbols are often displayed in inter-related groups. Within my ceramic practice I’m exploring the random variation and diversity that connects nature.

Flock project was developed to reflect on issues around migration, prompted by the movements of birds, alongside thoughts on wellbeing, nature and community, especially in the context of refugees.

I am very grateful to the Horniman Museum, London, for giving me the opportunity to present the most recent iteration of the project, within the natural history gallery.

Flock became a collaboration with the Grounding Project, which is funded by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) and the Maudsley Charity. Artist Julie Nelson led a number of clay bird-making sessions at Roots and Shoots in Kennington, London, with group members who have overcome adversity on their journey to the UK and who use the community garden to help with their recovery from trauma. The aim was to provide participants with an opportunity to create birds which would contribute to a collaborative installation composed of over 200 others which we exhibited together at The Project Space, at Lewisham Arthouse, in September 2019.

We were also awarded a grant from University College London (UCL) Grand Challenges to explore the impact of the non-clinical clay workshops on the wellbeing and mental healthcare of group members who attend the project. Julie Nelson collaborated with the team from the Maudsley; Dr Gemma Eke, Senior Clinical Psychologist, Myriam Sarens, Psychotherapist and Horticultural Therapist, Helen Shearn, art manager, together with academic researchers from UCL, Dr Humera Iqbal, Lecturer in Psychology, Professor Helen Chatterjee, MBE, and Dr Katie Quy, clinical psychologist.

We are grateful to Counterpoints Arts, who helped us to run 3 workshops at the V & A Museum in London for the launch of Refugee Week with members of the Grounding Project.

I would also like to thank Hesketh Pottery, Seaford, for the generous donation of clay for this project and ceramic artists Lucy Smith and Emily Stappleton-Jefferis for donating their skills and time.

Please see www.flockproject.co.uk for more images and news.

An important part of the process, to establish an intention, a thought reminder and to sow seeds of reflection. Drawing is a meditation.