Beauty in a hard place

When we visited the Centre of Ceramic Art at York Art Gallery last year I picked up a leaflet for the Ceramic Art York 2016 event (as seen on the desk in the photo above).  I did so mostly because of the design on the cover.  As so often happens, the leaflet was lost from my view and life intervened, until today when tidying a certain corner.

Before disposing of the leaflet in the recycling I decided to pursue that initial attraction and look up the artist: Rebecca Appleby.  In her ceramic sculptures I find that she has captured those brutish elements of urban detritus which so many of us find beautiful. 

I am attracted by her sculptures,

but am even more drawn to her collages/drawings

and especially to her paper maquettes.  All images are from Rebecca Appleby's website.