North Georgia Arts Guild
Skye Love – Detail and Color in Clay By Susan Brewer
S
kye Love is a twenty-one year old ceramic artist who introduced herself last November to North Georgia Arts Guild members during the monthly meeting. Her grandmother is Grandma Lee, whom the guild knows as Laura Loveless; she’s a guild member and master potter. At her urging, Skye spoke for ten minutes to the assembled artists and asked for feedback and pricing suggestions, while wondering aloud about the possibility of becoming an artist full time. With surprising skill, her works transform traditional clay shapes into worlds alive with vibrant colors. Her three dimensional designs are carefully crafted and balanced. One built-up surface represents a seabed; another, the forest floor. Richly textured sea barnacles seem wet, and there are toadstools, dragonflies, moss, clams, jellyfish, and swirls of water. The lips of coffee cups and other edges offer pop-up surprises of their own that include snails and more toadstools. There are also fairy home coffee cups and coffee cup hobbit dwellings. These delicate objects are comfortable to feel and hold. The decoration rests on a body that is light and thin. During the interview, Skye described how she assembles these works: “I’m really good at score and slip, though here is an early work where the pieces popped off.” Scoring refers to scratching into pieces of wet clay so to join them together using a glue-like clay and water paste called slip. Frequently, she is not one to follow rules. “Don’t mix your
18 - February 2020
