Rachel Lucas learnt ceramics at the National Art School, Australia in 2019, and now lives and works in Bouddi National Park surrounded by native bushland, beaches and bays.
Her hands are guided by the rhythms of the earth, the remarkable humans who inhabit it, and the impressions they have left on her soul. Her current series ‘Mortals’ is hand-built to completion and then torn open to mimic the cycle of life. It was inspired by a friend who died a few years ago. Rachel found her positivity and courage in the face of challenges life threw at her to be truly inspiring.
The pieces remind us that while youth with its perfection of form is quite simply beautiful, age has a more complex and profound beauty—the beauty of experience and grace in the face of adversity. They express faith in endurance despite the ravages of time, balancing mass against negative space, that which survives against that which has been lost, to evoke perfect forms that are still fully realised, seen clearly in the mind’s eye.
Time degrades, yet even in this destruction our lives may retain strength and grace. The body breaks; the spirit is intact.