Julie Moon

Ceramic artist Julie Moon says she is very driven by the process of making and exploring her interests in surface design, sculpture, decoration and painting rather than the final product. Moon studied in the fibre arts program which included ceramics at OCAD. This was where she says working with ceramics really stuck. “I was drawn to the potential of working with clay, the range of objects you could make, as well as its versatility in terms of processes, I’m always engaged and learning.” After graduating from OCAD in 2001, Moon continued her studies at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University graduating with an MFA in 2005. She’s had many solo exhibitions at galleries in Toronto and the U.S.

For the past few years, Moon has been building on a collection of botanical sculptures called Acid Garden which exhibited in a solo exhibition at Birch Contemporary this past November. “The pieces are quite graphic and colourful, very much inspired by textile and graphic design from the 1960s and 1970s.”

She says she loves the process of hand-building, specifically coil building with clay. “I find the process to be meditative and intuitive. The pace of building is slow and physically engaging enough for me to notice when different directions and new ideas emerge. The types of clay I use range from speckled stoneware to translucent porcelain. At the moment, I’m more drawn to darker clay bodies because I love the way that colours look on top of them, they tend to have more depth and texture.” She is currently finishing up some new sculptures that will be in the Philadelphia Art Fair in April. Beginning in May, you’ll find new work by Moon in the Gardiner Museum Shop. Moon’s studio is located in the Artscape Distillery Studios.