Natalya Seva
Inspirational Ceramic Artist
I found Natalya Seva on Instagram; she has a huge following on social media and I decided to give her a follow too. Her work made my eyes widen and jaw drop; I truly feel like her work is some of the most aesthetically pleasing and interesting work I have seen in my life.
Natalya did not have much of a bio on her website, she seems to primarily focus on her artwork and keep her face and personal life more hidden. I like that it is more about the art for her, but I still wanted to find out more about her as the artist, since personal life is usually pretty prevalent in people's artwork. I found an interview with her where she was asked to share her unique story. Apparently Natalya was about to graduate from Santa Monica College, where she was studying animation, and when sitting near the ceramics studio she noticed something interesting: a group of mugs stacked together (this is something we have done in our ceramics class!) Apparently this sculpture had very unique texture and she was drawn to it immediately. Before this experience, she had zero experience with/knowledge about ceramics. But ever since that moment she did not stop thinking about clay. She ended up taking a ceramics class, grabbed her first chunk of clay, and has not put it down since.
As you can see from the photo on the left, and the ones down below, Natalya uses a lot of wood in her ceramic pieces, as well as other unconventional materials. She does glaze some of her work, but she is also very inspired by the natural beauty of her materials like clay, wood, glass, and metal, so she often leaves her work unglazed. She gets her inspiration from nature as well, as she is "impressed by the uniqueness and perfection of nature." Most of her pieces are functional and are intended to be used.
Natalya's work is extremely inspirational to me, not only because I find it beautiful and mesmerizing, but I can also relate to her experience and her use of nature as an inspiration for artwork. I have always looked to nature for inspiration. I am moved by the beauty of nature, and I am passionate about issues surrounding nature like pollution, climate change, etc. Much like Natalya, I am just discovering my love for ceramics in my third year of college. I am not sure if I will be able to take it to the lengths that she was, but seeing her work makes me want to try. Making my own ceramic work that is meaningful and beautiful and having it on pedestals in a gallery is definitely now a dream of mine.
Bibliography:
http://voyagehouston.com/interview/meet-natalya-seva/
https://www.sevaceramics.com/about
https://www.instagram.com/seva_ceramics/?hl=en
