Title TBD
by CMS Pottery (Christina Stapper)
Saturday, November 1 - Saturday, November 22
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Christina Stapper is the artist behind CMS Pottery. Christina is a life-long creative spirit, community organizer and emerging potter. She is a clay-based artist living and working in Russell Ontario, the traditional territory of the Iroquois, Algonquin, and Mohawk Nations. Though Christina began her journey with a course taught by James Thorne, she is primarily a self-taught ceramicist leading to a unique, intuitive and ever-evolving approach to her practice. Her inspiration comes from a sense of home, love, intuition, and a strong desire for community. Since opening her studio in 2021 and her first exhibition in 2023, she has shown across the Ottawa Valley including at the Carleton Place Gallery, the Ottawa Guild of Potter's Spring and Winter Sales and at a variety of markets. She also has her own shop where people can visit every Thursday, mid-March through Christmas. Her work can be found in private collections across Ontario and as far as New Zealand.
'I am in a season of life where I am saying yes to love, to being more fully and unapologetically myself, of embracing others for who they are, and of saying yes to finding ways to be light in this world. Pottery has been a space of joy, a way for me to be creative, and a means of connection to community and other creators. I am truly just a baby potter as I’m only a few years into this journey, but it will be something I do forever. It feels like an extension of me.'
For my WallFlowers series I revisited the idea of home, drawing on memories of my childhood and instilling them into whimsical possibilities for the future. Although my memories are filled with the scent and majesty of flowers, my sense of place is also determined and limited by the word 'potential'. I wonder what the future holds for new ideas and new possibilities. I am whimsically playing with and challenging what we think a flower 'should' be. The designs of my WallFlowers are the result of an internal discussion between past and future, reality and dreams, and the unending magic that continues to bloom whether intentional, or by accident. Who are we? Should we 'bloom where you're planted'?
'I am in a season of life where I am saying yes to love, to being more fully and unapologetically myself, of embracing others for who they are, and of saying yes to finding ways to be light in this world. Pottery has been a space of joy, a way for me to be creative, and a means of connection to community and other creators. I am truly just a baby potter as I’m only a few years into this journey, but it will be something I do forever. It feels like an extension of me.'
For my WallFlowers series I revisited the idea of home, drawing on memories of my childhood and instilling them into whimsical possibilities for the future. Although my memories are filled with the scent and majesty of flowers, my sense of place is also determined and limited by the word 'potential'. I wonder what the future holds for new ideas and new possibilities. I am whimsically playing with and challenging what we think a flower 'should' be. The designs of my WallFlowers are the result of an internal discussion between past and future, reality and dreams, and the unending magic that continues to bloom whether intentional, or by accident. Who are we? Should we 'bloom where you're planted'?
