‘the unfolding of a pictorial rhythm’ is a collaborative research opportunity for six interdisciplinary artists to engage with Gwen John’s epistolary archive at the National Library of Wales, led by Natasha Mayo and Anna Falcini. A series of study days, examining John’s letters, sketches and notebooks, will lead to a six month period of correspondence and development with a final session at the National Museum Wales in 2026 during the Gwen John retrospective exhibition. The results will include expanded dialogue surrounding the life and practice of John, publication of new frameworks for conducting archival practice, exhibition at Oriel Davies, 2027.

2025 - Narrating Lives: International Storytelling (Auto) biography, (Auto) Ethnography - London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research.

A conference submission to build on the Flightlines research established together with @cjoneillceramic and signals a new collaboration with Dr Helen Walsh (CoCA) and her incredible research into the epistolary archive of WA Ismay. Much to do!

My application goes on to write:

Both sources capture life stories through the intimacy of conversation, a distinct mode of telling, where two people come together not simply to record life narratives but foster a relationship over time. With familiarity, their thoughts become increasingly shorthand due to the lessening need for fuller explanations, and a co-construction takes place, where the transference of ideas can be seen as playing a compelling role in constructing meaning.

The rhythm of these overlaps and connections contains its own narrative, a conveyance of meaning resonant of Bamberg and Georgakopoulou’s ‘small stories’, a way of describing how a conversation begins to ‘locate a level and even an aesthetic for the identification and analysis of narratives’. Within the ‘event’ of these small stories lies the tacit details of occupational folklore, the implicit sharing of knowledge expanding Ideas beyond what is spoken.

2024 - International Ceramics Symposium: Figurative Ceramics

Invited as a participating artist at the international ceramics symposium: Figurative Ceramics, taking place at the International Ceramics Studio, Hungary. This is in addition to the ICF award of a one-month residency at the studio. The symposium includes 10 invited international artists, assisted by skilled technicians, high-quality resources, to develop and contribute work to the esteemed ICS ceramic collection and also take part in presentations sharing our respective ideas and contributing to international ceramic debate.

During the residency I aim to develop the practice of ‘thinking through the skin’ on figurative ceramics; an experimentation with the ceramic surface to convey a sense of knowledge as it travels through the body.

The project is also generously supported by Wales Arts International Funding, The Foundation for Contemporary Ceramics (KKA) and the International Ceramics Festival, Aberystwyth (ICF)

In celebration of International Women’s Day and in collaboration with the Centre of Ceramic Art we are launching the Flightlines podcast!

Beyond the studio and gallery, women ceramicists navigate adaptation, collaboration, and resilience in ways that remain largely unrecognized. Shaped by interaction and coexistence, their practices challenge traditional models of making. Through conversations between ceramicists redefining the field, we bring these overlooked creative approaches into focus, celebrating ingenuity, connection, and the art of living with clay.

As part of the launch, we have selected 3 women with work featured in CoCA’s exhibition the ‘Wall of Women’ - @sararadstone, @fitchandmcandrew and @susanhallsceramicsuk - and invited them to discuss clay in all its forms with other women ceramicists@emilietaylor__ , @sharongriffinart, @jacquiramraykaceramicsand @saraheachristie - weaving narratives both within and outwards from the collection, to encourage meaningful dialogues in support of women in the field today.

The conversations will be accessible from the gallery space and enable visitors to understand more about the lives of the women behind the objects. These often humble, poignant and humorous interactions cover an incredible breadth of topics - motherhood, edgelands, witches, community, the role of clay, resilience and much, much more.

In preparation for the launch we are sharing our very first episode - recorded in 2022 - a conversation between founders @natashamayoceramics and @cjoneillceramicwith great thanks to sound artist @heleddcevans

The podcasts will be available on Spotify from March 8th - just search for Flightlines!

INTRO: Dr CJ O'Neill and Dr Natasha Mayo

Susan Halls and Sharon Griffin

Sara Radstone, JaJacqui Ramrayka, Sarah Radstone

Hannah AcAndrews and Emilie Taylor

2024 - 19th Annual International Education Studies Association Conference 'Education as radical change and innovation

‘The Pedagogy of Small Talk’ will demonstrate the application

of research into a teaching methodology. Flightlines is an

approach to conducting ‘in conversation’ events devised

together with @cjoneillceramic and adapted into clay practice

with the expertise of @sam____lucas and @kimnortondesign

to create ‘Flightlines: Small Talk’. The presentation explains

the premise of ‘Small Talk’, as an underpinning pedagogy for

the teaching of craft and in particular ceramics practice, that cultivates a relational mindset; an approach to making that

extends beyond the focus of the studio to account for acts of creativity.

Flightlines: Smalltalk -
In addition to conversations arising from CoCA’s Wall of Women we are revisiting the original Flightlines artists and the core themes they contain. This will lead to new conversations and new pairings to explore themes in more depth. So far this has included:

@myself__now_includes and @kimnortondesign in conversation about ‘Clay and Permaculture’. Surrounded by Claire’s beautiful garden, the catalyst for the re-wilding project: @bloomingwhiteway with @juderice.

2024 - The Performing Object: Ceramics as Performance – an Interdisciplinary Symposium Department of Drama, Theatre & Dance, Royal Holloway

Making Small Talk: working with clay has long been described as entering a conversation, an interaction between the nature of the maker and properties of the material. ‘Small Talk’ examines this sociality on a more nuanced level, by applying approaches commonly used in the practice of Oral History, to devise model of co-construction that can sensitize those involved to the nature of human interaction, and act as a register of the ‘smaller stories’ in the details of shared experiences.

2022 -

Flightlines adapts traditional oral history techniques to fuel conversations between ceramic artists and identify examples of ‘ensemble practice’ (Biggs, 2011), an approach that moves beyond the focus of the studio, in accounting for creativity that includes the entanglement of multiple, interconnected demands such as those of family, social/community, or wider global/ecological events. This multiplicity in creative practice can be found as a common negotiation for women/parent artists and yet, it is a model curiously lacking in recognition for its flexibility, ingenuity, resilience, and contribution in artistic terms.

The approach requires a shift in focus from understanding creativity as ‘owned’ by self-contained individuals, to practice shaped by relations and social concerns. The results document narratives that are rich in relational connection, a collection of conversations that are already mapping alternative routes through the field of ceramics, interweaving clay with permaculture / trail-running / trauma / wellbeing / folklore / midwifery…

2024 - NEW STUDIO!!

A am honoured to now inhabit a beautiful studio in Llandaff just around the corner from where I work at CSAD. It is a shared legacy studio for three ceramists, perfectly lit by skylights and glass doors, loo's and shower if we get really messy, external storage for clay, kiln area and the amazing Halley's park if we need to breathe by the Taff river! I have my bike and can pop over during a lunchtime!

2024 - co-written with Ingrid Murphy

This paper describes a practice-based research project being undertaken at Cardiff Metropolitan University, that focuses on the design and development of an interactive material library and the use of embedded RFIDs in object making. The project is part of a wider carbon literacy initiative in the school of art, and it is hoped that through digitally augmenting materials and objects with relevant data, we can enhance students’ learning while enabling them to evidence both their ethical choice and creative voice, in material practice and making processes.

2024

The following report maps the first stages of this study from initial interaction with the site of the residency at Niemelä house, E. Finland, and onto a series of drawing conversations with its attendees. The results start to show how, as a particular field of the visual arts, the drawing process can be shaped by situated ‘small talk’, reflected in equivalenthesitancies and utterances in emerging and growing ideas, and in turn, how narrative analysis can be used to interpret and explore the sociality of drawing taking place.

2023 - collaboration with Dr Cj O'Niell

Flightlines: Conversations in Clay, a collaboration with Dr CJ O'Neill explores the extraordinary practices that can arise from the relationship between ceramic practice and life. Using non-hierarchical approaches such as oral histories, fostering networks, and devising podcasts, we gather conversations that give insight into creativity informed by the entanglement of multiple, interconnected demands – a common negotiation of women artists - and yet, models of creative practice curiously lacking in recognition for their ingenuity, resilience, and contribution in creative terms.

Co-Authors include: Sarah Christie, Phoebe Cummings, Helen Felcey, Claire Loder, Sam Lucas, Mandy Parslow, Stephanie Rozene, Ina Kaur

2021

Creativity during the Covid lockdown: Life and Renewal During the Pandemic - The Royal Anthropological Institute, and The Folklore Society

Irreducible Forces of Home' explores how for many, the material-lore of ‘home’ lay dormant or unrecognised until lockdown, at which point its irreducible forces – a space containing memories, a shelter for day-dreaming - mobilised, tracing the ‘living history’ of families along pavements, parks and green spaces and contributing to a new, albeit temporary, sociality.