Artist statement

Paper meets clay

Over the last five to ten years I have focused a lot on paper craft and book sculpture. I have enjoyed this time and have created work that has travelled across the seas to America Belgium and France and by land around the UK. I have however realized I want to move onto a material that is less fragile, maybe because I have recently started to feel less fragile myself….
I have recently started working in ceramics again which has its own fragility but, compared with paper it has a lot more strength. Maybe I will work in metal or stone one day when I am ready.
My work right now is very personal, I am creating pieces of ceramic from book sculpture. The process I use means that the original book sculpture is burnt away in the kiln leaving imprints of my former passion. This creates a whole new sculpture. The new piece is interesting but still holds resemblance to familiar shapes like fossils, reminding us of the past.
I am moving forward but using fragile book sculpture as a strong foundation. In My new work I feel my mind is refreshed. I am still working with books but I feel the new work is bringing me forward and out of a safe place where I have sheltered while recharging.
In my new work I aim to push past what is comfortable and enjoy the exploration of a new material. As ever in my work I want to understand absorb, accept, appreciate, believe, catch, comprehend, conceive, digest, fathom, get, get the picture, grasp, have, imagine, know, perceive, realize, recognize, sense, think.
To read more about me and my work go to www.littlebookbird.co.uk

My name is Bronia I’m from the UK I was born in 1982 and since I can remember art has been my passion.
My mum did a lot of crafty things with us when growing up. She encouraged us to recycle old bottle tops, silver foil, old magazines and empty cereal packets. I think this made me view everything in the house as a potential art material.
I always loved working with paper I think because it’s so easy to get hold of and I found it was easy to work with. Paper is so versatile it can be ripped coloured cut glued soaked varnished or waxed etc.. the possibilities are endless.
I especially enjoy working with book sculpture I enjoy creating work with distorted text, I have dyslexia so I spent a lot of extra time at primary and secondary school working on my spelling grammar reading and handwriting. I think while putting in the extra time on my reading and writing I formed an interest in the aesthetics of text. I have grown a love hate relationship with words and my book sculpture is a celebration of words and stories, but also a form of therapy for my struggles with words and reading/writing.
I often sit for hours folding books I’m not always sure at the start what the finished sculpture will look like the process is very organic I have a starting idea and then see how it grows. I am inspired by dreams and nightmares, my childhood memories, fairy tales, nature, the world around me and philosophy, my work is born from a need to create, and through my work I try to explore my inspirations and create pieces that the viewer can feel connected too, visually and emotionally.

I also work in card ceramics fabric metal and wood plastic pen and ink and many other mixed media materials.

another passion is photography this started in secondary school when I took photography for GCSE and loved being able to capture images. I was always really interested in photographing texture and nature mostly close up but some lanscape, I really enjoy using my photos for digital collage.

I also love ceramics I find this to be the best type of art to teach patience as i have to wait to see how things will look when they come out of the kiln.

since i can remember I have been drawn to the beautiful and surreal and one film in particular stays in mind from my child hood that inspires me all the time its a film called ALICE by Jan vankmajer based on Alice in wonderland but more surreal than the already very surreal Alice in wonderland and much darker.

When I was about 7 during the summer holidays my mum my brother and me went to a little shop that was selling off loads of old videos. My mum let me and my brother choose a video each. I cant remember what my brother chose i think it was charlie brown. I don’t remember why I chose the one I did I think my mum just thought it was regular Alice in wonderland. I cant remember how many times I watched it but my mum has told me she got rid of it because she though it was too strange But through out my life I never forgot that film it was scary but intriguing and inspiring. It was a new world made from the imagination and that’s what I wanted I wanted to make my imagination so I could see it and touch it and so I could share it with other people so that’s what I do