Paul Donnelly and Rain Harris

In the summer of 2012 Paul Donnelly and RainHarris were both artists in residence at the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. Throughout this time they worked directly with industry tocreate ceramic works that reflected their own individual works.  In the down time while waiting formolds to dry, Rain started to decorate some of Paul’s thrown cups.  This initially started as justsomething to pass the time, but during the process they realized that her interestin pattern and decoration and his knowledge of form and design could be a perfectmatch.  After returning home, theydecided to further develop this collaboration and started to expand thevocabulary of their work together. 

Thisinvestigation into design and function has led to the development of collaborativework that is utilitarian in nature. Rain’s patterns are designed to work on Paul’s thrown forms, highlighting thegeometry of his work.  She usesrepetitive linear elements, runny glazes, and layers of underglaze andoverglaze decals to highlight and react to the vocabulary of Paul’s forms.   While many of the colors arebright, they are used sparingly to create a minimal and restrained palette creatinga rhythmic geometric language.  While their shared vision is inspired by the clean lines of mid centurydesign, they do not strive to make replicas of that time period.  Instead, they make playful subtle workthat melds minimalism with layered pattern to create elegant objects designedfor the home.

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