Julia Florence - In my Waters

Julia Florence's ceramics combine her love of drawing with her natural affinity with the medium of clay. Inspired by the shapes created by Japanese masters and the natural open landscape of Cornwall, Julia moves away from classical studio pottery and towards creating large scale pieces on which to paint her delicately drawn figures. The element of water plays a symbolic role in this series of work, as well as in the artist's life, living in Cornwall and being surrounded by the sea: ''I find calm and peace in the water and a sense of awe and respect at its power. The idea of water is strongly present in my dreams, swimming, drowning and crying. Water to me is a power to either surrender to and go with the flow or risk suffocation.'' The title of the show stems from the expression I feel it in my waters, describing a well of wisdom within us that some may call our instinct.

Julia is interested in how art making can work as an empowering exercise to help deal with past traumas. These ceramics were formed over a time of global and personal chaos, a period characterised by a sense of unease for the artist. Using the physical challenge of making vases on a larger scale as a way to channel her emotional energy, Julia symbolises these feelings and struggles in the painting of each piece, using empowering imagery often depicting nude female forms and wild looking natural elements. Through her images of figures swimming through their emotions, the viewer witnesses a story of adversity, but also hopefulness and self acceptance. Many of the works contain hand-written inscriptions (visible or hidden), which bring a sense of comfort as they allow the artist to externalise feelings and thoughts on how to deal with painful situations.

She refers to the importance of seeking external support, the temporary nature of our problems which usually 'come in waves' and the significance of self-love and care. Julia's figures have a dreamlike quality and some appear to be sleeping or half asleep reflecting the artist's struggle with over and under sleeping at times when she could only find peace in sleep. Dreams too though can be too vivid and in the haze of dealing with stressful situations, they may blur with actual events creating a mistrust within one's own reality. This feeds into Julia's work and often the figures she paints fulfill an element of a recurring dream such as breathing underwater. Another repeating image is that of the snake, which serves as a symbol of adversity to conquer and embody, drawing on ancient myths of heroes defeating monsters in order to harness their power. The snake also represents the base level instinct of our reptilian brain, the part that desires to keep us alive at any cost, a primal wisdom.