Featured Arkansas Artist: Beth Lambert

The Arkansas Studies Institute houses four art galleries, including a retail gallery, featuring the work of Arkansas artists and art related to the state. This post is part of a bi-weekly series featuring ASI gallery artists.

Beth Lambert
Biography

Beth Lambert is a studio potter and beekeeper who lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. She also teaches clay classes for adults at the Arkansas Arts Center.

Artist Statement

I became interested in terra cotta as a way of playing with clay again after working with very serious functional stoneware and porcelain. Working with terra cotta felt freer somehow, like a vacation. During this vacation, I started explorations in colored terra sigillatas, which opened spectral doors previously forbidden.

A slab-built hollow avian form developed from this darkness. I liked that every part of it was hollow, and I liked using very thin slabs. It became a dare to see how light and thin I could make them. One day, I realized they were so light they would float. This was very exciting to me, even though there was no logic to it. Who wants ceramic objects that float? But it took them in a different direction. Impressed markings started to suggest stars and maps and the idea of floating in the sky, and then I realized they didn’t need wings.

In this mythology, we have noted the appearance of a fantastic new creature that has been far away and brought back to us in new constellations of mysterious significance. These birds have evolved without wings to move simply between dimensions; migratory patterns innate to the species become part of the plumage.

Each color of terra sigillata on the birds is mixed from several different colors to give the colors a subtle depth. I don’t keep the recipes. When my supply of that color is exhausted, I formulate new ones. I enjoy this alchemical aspect of creation.

Click here to see more work by Beth Lambert.