Softening

This show is a culmination of studying native materials during my residency at The Clay Studio. For the past five years, I have been testing, refining and blending local materials into clays and glazes I employ in my functional pots. A total of three unrefined local clays, one locally sourced feldspathic rock and wood ash from my fireplace create a wide range of surface. My goal is to highlight these materials and have a finished pot that could not be made anywhere else.

https://metrophiladelphia.com/the-clay-studio/

For Willever, creating the ideal feeling of the pot, for the maker, the viewer and the user, is essential. He seeks to disrupt the tension that can be held in a tightly thrown form. Look closely at the surfaces to see scraping and swirling patterns in the clay that interrupt and soften the regularity of the near perfect throwing lines. Willever wants the viewer to underestand the hand made quality of the object, and to hold that in contrast to mass produced goods. Machine-made goods telegraph the tension of those machines, and the corporate systems that distribute them. Nathan Willever works to soften that tension, and to offer a moment of calm to those who experience his work.  Each vessel is different, each speaks of the maker, his skill, and his artistic vision, infusing the environment it occupies with a spirit of release from 
the tension of every day life.