Helen Fuller was one of my teachers 25 million years ago when I did my undergraduate degree at QUT. I remember finding her intriguing but I was too young to fully take advantage of her off-beat creativity and gentle encouragement. Since that time Helen has moved to Adelaide and is now making pots. I love these pots, I like the way Fuller has used the composition to flatten the pots which weirdly draws attention to their 3 dimensionality. The marks of making are very evident in the surface texture and the form refers to domestic shapes. For a painter to make pots like this where the surface texture, form and colour and composition of the drawings are pulling back and forward in an evenly weighted dialogue is very unusual. It intersects with my concerns about drawing on pots becoming too superficial, and decorative. I like the way the form of the pots are in tension with the composition which seems to be trying the pull them into a different shape the further I get into this degree the more I discover the materiality is an important element in my making. Concerns from the beginning of my interest in pots have developed into a dogged exploration of surface and form, a continual striving for the drawings to work back and forwards with the surface and form.
