Statement
Simon Fell is a ceramic sculptor who has over time developed a deeply embodied artistic practice. After starting with informalism in art school, he returned to clay in 1980 through a local pottery class while working as an illustrator, realizing he had been “missing making things” with his hands.
Beyond his initial workings in his sketchbook Simon operates from a principle of physical discovery – he makes things, then discovers more meaning through the process. His shopping basket series exemplifies this: what started as experimentation with an extruder and space-frame drawings evolved when he rotated a piece and saw “half a basket,” leading to echoes of hidden meanings within this universal symbol of modern commerce and decision-making.
Simon works predominantly in clay, creating shell forms – self-supporting structures that must survive the kiln and defy gravity. This practical constraint sometimes shapes his aesthetic toward chunky, robust forms that he acknowledges have a “cartoony” or “cute” quality, though others see them as robust. He tries to maintain a balance between art and everyday life while developing tacit or haptic skills – the embodied knowledge that comes from decades of working with the same material.
In an art world pushing materials agnosticism, Simon has chosen depth over breadth, developing skill with clay that allows something larger to flow through his work. He contrasts this with conceptual art’s emphasis on intellectual cleverness, advocating instead for the integration of mind and body in the creative process.
Simon’s pieces carry myriad uncertainties rather than single meanings, allowing viewers to discover their own connections. His physical discovery process creates ambiguity and richness – not manufactured mystery, but authentic complexity that emerges from real making. In our increasingly digital world, his work offers rare encounters with something hand made and discovered rather than designed and predetermined.
In one sentence : Simon represents an artist who trusts the wisdom that emerges when mind and body work together, where decades of tactile skill allow something larger to flow through the work, creating objects that slow people down and invite personal discovery in an age of instant digital everything.
How this statement was written.
This statement replaces one that I wrote on my own that I adjusted over several years as my work evolved. This text was written in collaboration with 3 others and an AI in a WeArtStep session
That statement was intentionally written in the first person because “I don’t want to mystify my work by pretending to be someone else writing about it. Art is already mystifying to many people, there is no need to to obscure it behind a wall of words – unless of course your intention is to create rarity, obscurity and bogus value.” I am going to let the third person perspective can stand for the moment although in general I find it unhelpful. The statement uses a wider vocabulary than my own and phrasing that I could not have devised alone. To me currently it seems like an advance on what existed before.
Here is a link to a great page about how to write a really good Artists Statement. It’s very refreshing to see them encouraging the use of the first person.