"I am a painter and ceramicist."

My paintings are abstract works with spatial and architectural qualities. I work with mixed media, acrylic, charcoal, graphite, textiles, and collage on canvas, panel, or paper. I think in 3 dimensions while composing, often using a grid as a starting point to build from and break apart. Each painting goes through many changes as I search for depth, balance, light, and shadow.

My ceramic work consists of small-scale sculptures and functional pieces. With these I experiment with shape, texture, and glaze and in many cases they have a similar collage-like language as my paintings. I believe my two practices inform each other.

My process is guided by intuition, which for me is closely connected to memory. I draw on past experiences; training as an architect, making drawings and models; sewing and repairing textiles; having a Scandinavian background shaped by traditions of craftsmanship and design. These influences inform how I pay attention to form and detail.

I see myself as a maker - a kunsthandwerker - as much as an artist. My work focuses on building surfaces from different media and materials, using a range of techniques. Over time, I allow things to shift, layer, and settle, revealing a history of the work’s emergence. I am interested in the tension between structure and looseness, refinement and rawness, and in finding beauty through process, attention and the act of making itself.

Linda May Martin