Artist: Marina Van Raay
Medium: Ceramic
Dimensions: 12'' x 15''

Bidding on this artwork will take place at the Live Auction event, Friday, April 10. Tickets available at the link at dvsa.ca. Absentee bids can also be placed in advance – request a form at the school office or email bid@dvsa.ca.

About This Piece
Charmed is a playful clash of bold pattern created entirely from coloured clay. Left unglazed, the surface reveals a matte, stone-like texture that highlights the raw qualities of the material. Sculptural patterned letters wrap around the vessel like charms, bringing together bold colour, pattern, and ornamentation.

Biography
Marina Van Raay is a Japanese-Canadian emerging artist based in Hamilton, Ontario. A graduate of Sheridan College’s Bachelor of Craft and Design program, she is currently an artist-in-residence at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. Van Raay gained a deep appreciation for craftsmanship and a passion for clay through her father. Growing up in an artistic family, where creative expression was always encouraged, her grandmother was both an artist and a potter, inspiring her dad to take up pottery, which he introduced Van Raay to in 2016.

Van Raay was born in Japan and moved to Canada at the age of 5. Through her work, she explores the cultural experiences that have shaped her life. She explores her relationship with nostalgia through design, process, and decoration, evoking childhood feelings of innocence and optimism.

Embracing play as a design method, Van Raay aims to capture its essence as she creates, embellishes and decorates throughout the making process, incorporating additional elements both before and after the glaze firing. Extending the act of making in this way invites a sense of play and freedom, as she picks and chooses from a variety of charms and chains, made from glaze and stained clay. Van Raay’s inspiration draws from her admiration of Japanese pop culture, particularly the maximalism of 2000s Harajuku culture. Characterized by a vibrant and eclectic mix of styles, this culture’s emphasis on excessive adornment and an abundance of accessories informs her decorative approach. Through her work, she explores the potentials of excessive decoration, collaging, embellishing, and the fusing of styles.