Bio

Colleen Dwyer Meloche is a Montreal/ Tiohtià:ke based artist who explores notions of balance and belonging with clay. Her art practice ranges from eclectic ceramics for the home to sculptural constructions with coloured paperclay. Her pottery collections entertain the simple visual language of stripes and dots.

Her art practice is narrated by the interplay of nature and culture as they relate to notions of balance and belonging. Her work engages the malleability of material to imitate and transform, and questions the concept of thin places to explore the threshold between the seen and the unseen.

She constructs sculptures with ribbon-like strips of paper clay to explore the evolving nature of becoming — how it can be achieved, disrupted and restored — and the precarious space of paradox and purpose. Elements of collage, colour and texture thread together themes of transition, tension and mystery.

In her functional work, Colleen uses hand-building techniques as well as throwing forms on the pottery wheel to create handmade ceramics for the everyday experience. By layering stencils of coloured underglazes and image transfers, she creates playful surface treatments. The design of these limited edition collections centers on serving pieces embellished with theme variations of lines and circles.

Colleen received her BFA with distinction from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. She has participated in long-term ceramic internships in both Montreal and France. Colleen has also studied drawing in Italy and has exhibited her work in France, the United States and Canada.

Artist Statement

“What we seek, at the deepest level, is inwardly to resemble, rather than physically possess, the objects and places that touch us through their beauty.”

– Alain de Botton

I create loose entanglements with paper clay to investigate the idea of unravelling. Each sculpture has several resting points playfully blurring the line between place and purpose. My work dissects the tapestry of universal feelings of loneliness, confusion and joy as they play out in metaphors of balance and belonging. 

With inviting arches and forbidding angles, my work addresses notions of desire and vulnerability that are tightly tethered to the objects and spaces we encounter collectively. I’m curious about the ways emotions color an experience and how the cherished and reviled parts bring tension to the tenderness.

Paper clay subverts the meaning of “thin places” as points of weakness to conjure a place of strength and transformation. The thin strips of clay reference delicate structures, vulnerable points and elements of collage.

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