Dawn Whitehand: Visual Artist
I am an Australian artist, making unique mixed media sculptures from clay, found objects and textured materials which are based on organic natural forms.
I also create a range of functional ceramics for your home and jewellery for your fashion wardrobe.
Visit the SHOP to browse my latest creations.
Professional services include: Ceramic Sculpture,Mixed Media, Classes & workshops, Art consultancy, Private, public and corporate commissions and Curating.
I have been a practising artist for over twenty years, and during this time have exhibited widely throughout Australia and internationally, have had peer review images published in books and am held in several public and private collections.
As well as many other publications, recently I have had a book published, which I wrote, entitled Pit Firing Ceramics: Modern Methods, Ancient Traditions. The book contains a History chapter – Ancient and Contemporary; a How To chapter – featuring perspectives and photo essays from more than a dozen ceramic artists; and an Artist Profile section- featuring thirty plus international artists highlighting their artworks and why they incorporate pit firing into their arts practice. The book is published through Schiffer Books and is available via most online book shops.
France 2010
Artist Statement
Working from my studio on the outskirts of Ballarat at the base of a slumbering volcano, I am very aware of my environment, its constant changing, and its vulnerability. I am also very aware of the current global environmental crisis.
Within this context my art practice attempts to address these issues by making sculptural artworks that attempt to remind, though subliminally, the viewer of their innate connection to the Earth, and our reliance upon it for survival. I do this by using organic materials and textures and recycled materials to reflect the natural world. The combination of these materials, shapes and textures conjure abstract images of the landscape in an attempt to trigger innate, yet perhaps dormant, understandings within the viewer about their embedment in the natural environment. I use clay as the main material to suggest these concepts as it is itself of the “Earth”, and therefore a poignant reminder of humanities connection to the organic world. It is only through humanity becoming re-aware of their symbiotic relationship with the Earth that they can ever hope to stop consuming it and begin living with it.
I hope to capture these concepts within the tableware and jewellery range also by using textures, shapes and colours that reflect the natural world.
You can connect with me on these social networking sites:
Facebook: My Visual Artist Profile
Classes & Workshops on Facebook
Youtube “how-tos”
Dawn Whitehand-Visual Artist (for visual art)
ClayMotion (for classes & workshops)
Discussion
17 thoughts on “About Me”
Leave a Reply to Helen LyonsCancel reply
This work by Dawn Whitehand is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Waw Dawn…nice work! I love the organic claywork!Hpw big are these balls?What kind of glaze do you use?
For the moment I work with a gaskiln-pots are into a claybox(I don’t know the word…)with a ashglaze-seaweed-salt and some sulfates(?). I start the kiln on saturday.
I’m very curious for these results.
I,m not a facebook-er etc…cannot or don’t want to take time for it…
Is it winter now at your place?
Myriam
Posted by Myriam Thas | October 6, 2011, 6:39 pmHey Myriam, glad you like these new works… they are different sizes, but am trying to go for scale… glazes I am still thinking about.
The ‘claybox’ is a saggar… i have done some saggar firing in the past & love the results… these days I do pit firing which gets similar results & is very interactive.
I think you can look at my Facebook photos & stuff without being “on” Facebook… if so you could look at some of my previous works. (this blog is only new).
We are in Spring here at the moment & moving into Summer in November… so I guess you are the opposite??
Anyways good to be in contact… :-))
Posted by Dawn Whitehand | October 7, 2011, 12:19 amDawn, You are an amazing artist and I love your blog!! I wanted you to know that I have nominated you for the Versatile blogger Award! You can find the specifics about this award here:
http://cravencreativity.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/versatile-blogger-award/
Your blog is an inspiration, keep doing what you are doing:) I’m looking forward to following along with it!
Sincerely
Karen
Posted by cravencreativity | January 17, 2012, 1:26 amHi Dawn,
Your work is inspirational. I just want to reach out and touch them to explore the different textures. Guess that is what happens if you work in 3D. Isn’t the computer a wonderful gift for we folks that like to see what is happening in our medium and we can do it all around the world. Keep up the goos stuff.
Helen Lyons
Canada
Posted by Helen Lyons | March 26, 2012, 9:44 pmThat should be good stuff not goos stuff
Posted by Helen Lyons | March 26, 2012, 9:45 pmThanks for the encouraging words Helen, much appreciated 🙂
Posted by Dawn Whitehand | March 26, 2012, 11:41 pmHello Dawn, thank you for visiting MoE art, I do like your work, especially “colony”. I will visit again. Kind regards, Gregory.
Posted by Molecules of Emotion | June 30, 2012, 5:09 amThanks Dawn for following http://www.photobotos.com/. You have a very creative site here and I will try to visit more often.
Posted by PhotoBotos.com | August 20, 2012, 12:25 amGreetings, Dawn! I’ve nominated you for the “One Lovely Blog Award”. If you’re interested, you can read all about how to accept and pass it along to other deserving bloggers:
http://artdoesmatter.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/one-lovely-blog-award/
Posted by artdoesmatter | August 30, 2012, 12:12 amwell thank you so much Patricia… sounds a bit scary but I’ll give it a go 🙂
Posted by Dawn Whitehand | August 30, 2012, 12:22 amBeautiful! We should organize an art workshop in our Italian region! 🙂 Alessia
Posted by Maple&Saffron | February 11, 2013, 1:36 amNice artwork and like your “blue ceramic tapas dish set” with the cute little spoon on Etsy.
Posted by Mary Gilmartin | March 19, 2013, 2:15 amthanks Mary… much appreciated 🙂
Posted by Dawn Whitehand | March 19, 2013, 12:51 pmHi Dawn…Thanks for visiting my site. I look forward to exploring yours from which I see I have much to learn, and it has inspired me to start posting some of my own work. Cheers
Posted by Andrew Seal | October 5, 2013, 3:53 amThanks Andrew … looking forward to your new posts 🙂
Posted by Dawn Whitehand | October 5, 2013, 5:48 pmHell Ms. Whitehand. I recently acquired three stoneware anamorphic figures signed Whitehand, one a boar one a deer and one a rabbit are these some of your earlier pieces. They are scribed copyright 1983
Posted by bernadette | February 9, 2015, 1:30 pmFreut mich Ihre Seite zu sehen, ich hatte auch 31 Jahre eine Keramikwerkstatt
Gruß Dieter Dietz
Posted by Schnippelboy | June 7, 2016, 6:34 pm