ARIANA HEINZMAN
IT’S GOOD TO BE HERE

An immersive ceramic garden of hand build vessels and wall mounted tiles by Vashon Island based ceramicist, Ariana Heinzman. Grounded in the artist's relationship with nature, bold color and botanical patterns cover the otherwise naked ceramic forms.   

It’s Good to be Here views vessels as a stand-in for the human figure. Ariana Heinzman’s artwork is an embodiment of humanity’s inseparable relationship to the earth. The forms embrace the historic utilitarian nature of pottery. Her work is a metaphor for realizing one’s own nudity and having the overwhelming urge to cover it up. Heinzman wields patterns of leaves to cover the ceramic form, her work becomes an allegory for The Garden of Eden. 

Using the anthropomorphic clay vessel, she blends the identities of earth, plant, and body into one, either to hide one’s true self or to find it. Her style uses bold lines and color to hide, to over-accentuate, or to balance the relationship between form and surface.

Ariana Heinzman received her BFA in Ceramics from The Rhode Island School of Design in 2013 and has been creating and exhibiting her work regularly ever since. Including locally in exhibitions at the Vashon Center for the Arts, Pottery Northwest and is included in Seattle University’s Private Art Collection.

Heinzman lives and works on Vashon Island, Washington.

• ARTIST STATEMENT

  ARIANA HEINZMAN

  It’s Good to Be Here
  Artist Statement

  Ariana Heinzman’s exhibition It’s Good to be Here immerses the viewer in a garden of whimsical hand built ceramic vessels and wall-mounted tiles. Grounded in the artist's relationship with nature, bold color and botanical patterns cover the otherwise naked ceramic forms. The duality of each form celebrates the beauty of life while acknowledging a human longing to have a deeper connection to the land. The collection does not strive to be exemplary. It presents a surface level interpretation of nature - inviting the viewer to pose questions.

  Heinzman creates quickly and intuitively. Her work is made entirely by hand, without sketching or looking at references. This process captures the urgency and joy of making and acknowledges the agency of the materials. The raw clay retains memory and reacts to Heinzman’s touch. Forms are coil built and smoothed by hand. Each layer in turn defines the path of the next - resulting in an organic end form. Once the form is leather dry, rims are trimmed into the forms of leaves using a sharp blade. Pigmented slip is applied in layers with brushes in gestural strokes forming bold lines and patterns. Form and surface are used to build illusion. There is a contrast between the naked clay body - soft and imperfect - and the bold, graphic finishing adornments.

  Heinzman sees vessels as a stand-in for the human figure. Her artwork is an embodiment of humanity’s inseparable relationship to the earth. The forms embrace the historic utilitarian nature of pottery. She is influenced by characteristics that resonate in different societies around the world - particularly how line, bright colors and plant motifs are recurring elements.

  These influences further developed Heinzman’s ideas of how a form can reference nature and the body.