Too Loud ! Too Weird ! - Ceramics by Kim Hargreaves

Too Loud ! Too Weird ! With her studio based in the UK homeland of ceramics, Stoke on Trent, Kim uses her unique talent and style to create wildly colourful, unconventional pieces out of stoneware and terracotta. Each vessel is a one of a kind, linked to its brothers and sisters through design, colour, glaze or motif. Swirls undulate, flames reach and flicker and dots and rings tie every object together, the one before to the one after and so forth. This is deliberate as Kim plays with ideas of genetic links and the ties that bind. Kim uses her art to make a personal statement about her own experiences swell as others who stand out, whether they want to or not. "I always felt "too big" that even my very presence, my energy fills a space. Forever being told as a girl to calm down and be quiet, to sit still, to not laugh too loud or speak in ways that would make me stand out. I was taught, like many women and girls, to somehow minimise myself. To become smaller, physically through diet, verbally through silence and at six foot, I was too tall for a girl, my personality and my person just took up too much space! So I deprogrammed myself quite young, to walk with my shoulders back, to wear heels if I chose, to not be afraid of asserting myself, even appearing dominant. My pieces might seem complex, but really they are just things I love to create. My art is for me and those like me, those who take a different path. They are often "unnecessarily" bright, big, heavy, weird and loud... Because why not ? They are made that way, as am I ."