The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 48 No 3 November 2009

Inside My Studio
StudiO exterior and interior, 2009
photo: artist
VG: Describe your work pattern - hours/days/week etc.
PH : I remember reading an article by Petrus Spronk in an old Studio Potter magazine about Cypriot
peasant potters who farmed most the year and then made olive oil pots through the winter. I see my
practice as an indulgence that has to operate around the important day-to-day requirements of family
life. I fiddle about in the workshop for about 4 solid hours a day and mash this up with liberal amounts
of domestic duties. Like most other potters I also work weekends, after hours and late into the night,
depending on deadlines.
VG: Describe the work you make in your studio.
PH : Pots and stuff that I would like to think demonstrate some standard of fitness and beauty derived
from tradition that are not necessarily masterpieces but intrinsically sound works. (Thanks to Bernard
and 'Towards a standard ')
VG : What is the most satisfying part of your work?
PH: Getting paid.
VG: Why is clay your chosen medium?
PH: Because there was no computer graphic equ ipment buried in the primary school playground. Also
clay does it all- you can sculpt it and bu ild w ith it, add to it, take bits away. You can print on it, you
can paint on it and with it. The finished work can be utilitarian or imbued with all sorts of political and
cerebral artistic merit. It's tactile. It can be fine and translucent or chunky and monolithic. The making
process and discovering the history never gets boring.
THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2009 8)