Amy Chase – Artist

Amy Chase experiments with soft colors and unique textures in work like “Preservation.”

Placement is key in understanding Amy Chase’s ceramic work. The objects that form her sculptural pieces are carefully placed to suggest certain emotions: one object positioned higher than the others creates a sense of authority, while objects arranged inside one another create a sense of protection.

Chase worked as a graphic designer for seven years before finally recognizing the void she was feeling. She built a studio behind her home, and studied ceramics at Southern Illinois University, earning her master’s degree in 2010.

While she sometimes turns to the wheel, Chase prefers hand-building, making pinch pots, then adding coils to create her forms. After a piece has been carefully smoothed and allowed to harden, she adds spikes and bumps in meticulous, ordered patterns. Chase’s soft color palette comes from the wallpaper patterns and floor tiles of her childhood surroundings. “The most influential is my grandmother’s room, covered in various shades of blue,” she says. “This blue room became a symbol of caring and safety for me, and is carried out through my work.”

Chase’s sculptural pieces range in price from $300 to $800. Her work will be on view in “Sensual Ceramics” at the Carbondale Clay Center in Colorado Feb. 4-March 2, 2011.