Julia McNeal

“I see my objects as finds, imperfect evidence of our times, the way we might look at early writing, preserved because stamped in clay, the great preserver. I wanted to change the daily ephemera of contemporary newspapers into a more solid form, suggested by ancient writing on clay. This what led me to all the various methods of print-on-clay, and eventually to paperclay.”

Julia works from ‘surface to form’. The image of the selected text starts with a photographic etching, silkscreen or sometimes stencilling to lay a text onto a plaster mould, which can be inked up with dark clay slip to reveal the text before making the clay ‘page’ from layers of wet paperclay. The image can be altered by additions of coloured slips and glazes at various stages. Finally, at a suitable stage of dryness, the clay page can be lifted off the mould and formed – this stage is particularly delicate!

Julia originally studied political science at Oxford and worked in broadcasting, social research and writing, and as the administrator of a legal project. It wasn’t until much later that she turned to art, taking a degree in Fine Art at London Guildhall University and a Diploma in Ceramics. Since 1995 her work has been shown in a number of commercial and publicly funded galleries in Britain and the USA