What am I

Dutch
Keramist (m) -en beoefenaar v.d. pottenbakkerskunst, pottenbakker; (v) -miste -n en -s; ook ceramist
Pot·ten·bak·ker (de; m,v; meervoud: pottenbakkers) maker van potten.

English
Potter /ˈpɒtə/ noun: potter; plural noun: potters; a person who makes dishes, plates, and other objects from clay, usually by hand on a special wheel.

'Potter' seems to be a collective name for anyone who makes something out of clay. But there is an essential difference between a potter and a ceramist. A potter is someone who makes pots and other ceramic goods, while ceramist is a person who makes ceramic objects.

Although both groups can be successful in what they do and both work with clay, the comparison ends here.

According to the English, but also the Dutch dictionaries, a potter ('pottenbakker' in Dutch) is someone who makes pots, but most Dutch dictionaries mention the same under 'keramist' ('ceramist' in English).

It's kind of weird. If you tell a stranger that you are a sculptor, they will probably ask you what material you use. But almost no one would immediately assume that you work with clay. And so you use the word ceramist, but then they get confused with potter.
That is why I use the term 'ceramic sculptor' nowadays. I know it sounds a bit pretentious, but people understand this better and won't ask me to make them a series of plates again.

The funny thing is that I don't only make sculptures. For example, I am currently working on a series of boxes, in between I make small ceramic paintings and I have made a whole series of ceramic book covers.
To be honest, there is no better name for this than simply 'ceramist', but it is precisely that name that defines me - at least according to the Dutch dictionaries - as someone who makes pots.

Perfect imperfection, it’s not

According to the Latin from which the word is derived, perfection is the finished state of something. Imperfect would therefore only mean that it’s just not finished yet.
My work entails objects that might look like things that once were perfect (or nearly perfect), but have now entered a decrepit state. And that’s exactly what I aim for.
I see the strenght of color, or the lack of it, the worn surfaces, rough edges, oxidized details & fading texts or images, and from it I read the underlying story.
To say that my work samples the art of imperfection, would therefore be doing it injustice. It’s never solely about the objects, always also about the stories.

Tools of the trade

Arty Bollocks Generator

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"Please don't take me seriously"
Deze generator produceert een pretentieuze en zinloze "About Me"-tekst. Absoluut èrg grappig, maar gebruik het vooral als voorbeeld hoe 't niet moet:

My work explores the relationship between emerging sexualities and urban spaces.
With influences as diverse as Nietzsche and Roy Lichtenstein, new combinations are created from both explicit and implicit meanings.
Ever since I was a student I have been fascinated by the ephemeral nature of the mind. What starts out as vision soon becomes corrupted into a dialectic of power, leaving only a sense of what could have been and the prospect of a new reality.
As temporal forms become frozen through diligent and diverse practice, the viewer is left with an impression of the possibilities of our future.