dillon rudge - raku ceramics of animals

Ceramics by Dillon Rudge B.A. Hons Bristol Polytechnic of Art & Design

….." Having lived in Devon all of my life, I have always been aware of various animals both domestic and wild. By exploring all the different mediums in Art, I found clay modelling the most satisfying and rewarding of all and therefore decided that combining clay with animal form was the most logical progression for me to undertake. Some animals have more defined characteristics than others, which at some stage in my Art Education, made me realise that just copying an animal from life form was not enough to capture the true essence of the animal in question.

I realised in most cases that realism is good to a certain degree but if nothing personal is attributed by me the Artist, then people may just as well purchase the real animal because Art is about conveying a piece through the Artist eye where expression and form become more important that the actual presentation of say, a Hare or Cat. So at presentI am trying to capture certain characteristic elements of animals i.e. movement, fluidity, structural form which flows throughout the piece.

The hare, for instance, is called "A Large Lolloping Lepus". The title piece is important to me, I could have called the piece "Hare" but that would have been minimalist to say the least. The Hare tends to be very leggy and ungainly in its appearance and the Latin word Lepus describes this so much better that the English word Hare. The leggyness is key to its survival in the wild, enabling the Lepus to run and out manoeuvre the most determined predator. The Lolloping is unique to the Lepus because as it grazes, it raises and turns its ears to scan for predators while gently bounding from one patch of pasture to the other."