VISUAL ARTIST - THANG CLEO
QUOTATIONS
"My work is about child's play and imagination. I've built my sculptures using a stoneware clay body and glazes which are fired to a temperature of cone five or six (about 1500* - 1700*). I chose to work with clay because I feel freed by clay. I can get my thoughts into the clay quickly, with my hands. My works are mostly three-dimensional pieces and usually hollow. They vary in sizes.
The images I make are linked to my childhood - my imagination and nightmares about weird looking animals and monsters. I have included a self-portrait in most of my works because these nightmare images are constantly spinning in my head, I feel that they are closely related to me, and had even become a part of me. I started working with ceramics when I first entered college. I used to take their art for granted. But now, I know that my attitude towards art has changed tremendously in the four years of my university life. I've always been looking for the meaning of creativity, now I know that creativity is not restricted to those with talent only; it is a process of seeing and reacting, one has to learn.
Often, my thoughts of the images change while I am sculpting. I do not always sketch my ideas out, as sketches disturb my hands from being spontaneous with the clay. Thus, I work freely as I do not give myself restrictions. Good throwing comes from a lot of hard work and practice. I consider my works surreal as I am very much influenced by painters like Max Ernst and Joan Miro. I tend to drift into another existence when I am sculpting my work. This is when I start to manipulate my sculptures. I believe that my works are means of communication between others and myself about my personal experience and emotion. It is also spiritual for me as it somewhat conveys a message about another existence, in which I have been interested since I was a child."
我选择陶土是因为它让人感觉自由。我可以用手很快的把想法混进陶土里。我大部分的作品是立体和沉重的，有不同的尺寸。
我所做的陶土形象与我的童年有关 －存在我想象和恶梦里的奇怪面相动物和妖魔。我已经在作品里画进了自画像，因为这些恶梦里的怪相持续不断的在我脑海里旋转，我觉得它们和
我很靠近，甚至成为我的一部分。
当我雕刻时，我心目中要调的塑像一直在变。我通常不把心里的概念画出来，那是因为先画出来会干扰手部自动制作陶土。正因如此，我能自由的创作是因为不限制自己。
