Julie Nelson is a British ceramicist who uses the materiality of clay as a means to explore the natural world. Her work focuses on the elemental and she crafts in a series, often exhibiting objects in groups that both contrast and interrelate. Her collections, based on biology, botany and landscape, express the visual regularities found across nature, exploring pattern and entropy, whilst highlighting the connectedness of everything. Julie’s installation Flock explores themes of migration and identity and involves groups and individuals who have a connection to the subject.

1. Where were you born and where are you from ?

I’m from the UK and was born in Nottingham, in the Midlands. When I was very young we moved to Torquay, a seaside town in the South West of England.

2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?

I grew up surrounded by books, many of which were about art. Throughout my childhood a dramatic painting of a coastline, seen from above and in muted colours, hung on the wall. My parents bought it when young in the late 50’s. The painting looks abstract and is intriguing, made more so for being unnamed. It lived with them for all of their life. My mother also loved the  Impressionists and we had a print of Gustave Caillebotte’s sensual painting Raboteurs de Parquet in the house too.

3. Have you always worked in the art/design field ?

Yes. I loved art at school, and going to art school was a no-brainer. My degree was in 3- DimensionalDesign and I specialised in ceramics. I did work commercially as a prop maker when  I left college but always as a sculptor.

4. What led you to the design creation ?

As soon as the opportunity opened up I began creating my own pieces.

5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?

I am full of wonder at the natural world and need to interpret it through the making process. This is how the ideas evolve, through studying the forms around me.

6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?

I wake up at 6am and like to spend the first hour or so thinking, gathering my thoughts about my day in the studio. I do try to capture an idea with a quick sketch but often ideas evolve through making. Studio time passes in a flash and I often stay very late, completely absorbed. I make notes before leaving to pick up where I left off for the next day.

7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?

My degree gave me the opportunity to make ceramics, furniture, glass, and metal. Clay responds immediately through touch, atmosphere, and temperature. It becomes quite technical if you want to take the material to another level.

“Her slender vessels wrapped in rhythmic waves are akin to the pulse of the sea”
Emily Steer

8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?

I construct my pieces like a dressmaker, cutting out shapes and assembling them in a  spontaneous way. I layer slips, wash away and reapply in a way that encourages an element of  free form as if the surface had been subjected to the elements.

9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?

Be ambitious and curious, and remember ‘better done than perfect’ in the beginning.

10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?

I’m not keen on labels but Organic Modernism would do.

11. What designers and artists have influenced you ?

Valentine Schlegel, Axel Salto, Bruno Munari, James Tower, Beate Kuhn

12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?

Akiko Hirai, Turi Heisselberg Pedersen, Domingos Tótora, Vincenzo De Coitiis

13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?

Lubna Choudhary, Maya Lin, Gabriel Orozco, Ellen Gallagher

14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?

‘Her slender vessels wrapped in rhythmic waves are akin to the pulse of the sea’ by Emily Steer

15. Is there anything you would like to add ?

A thank you for the opportunity to offer my thoughts.

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)

11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

At the end of the day…

12. Which talent would you most like to have?

Public speaking 

13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would speak many languages

14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Getting to here

15. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

A tree

16. Where would you most like to live?

Where I live, close to the sea

17. What is your most treasured possession?

My pre-iCloud photos

18. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Lack of opportunity

19. What is your favorite occupation?

Visiting galleries

20. What is your most marked characteristic?

My height

21. What do you most value in your friends?

Curiosity

22. Who are your favorite writers?

Bruno Munari, John Berger, Rachel Carson

23. Who is your hero of fiction?

Ripley in Alien

24. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Alexander Humboldt

25. Who are your heroes in real life?

My husband and my late parents

26. What are your favorite names?

The names we gave our sons

27. What is it that you most dislike?

Superiority

28. What is your greatest regret?

Not learning a language to fluency when young

29. How would you like to die?

Quietly

30. What is your motto?

Stay curious