Dan and Nisha's ceramic creations testify to the enduring qualities of slip-casting and glazing in the traditional manner. Married in life and art, they bring a vibrant joie de vivre to everything they touch, creating magnificent works sure to please for years to come.
Dan is the sculpture and mould maker. His figures and animals, striking in both their animation and pathos, are fashioned in clay then reproduced using complex plaster-piece molds that rival those created by the old masters. Dan is continually striving to achieve the perfect balance between realism and abstraction in order to create simple yet illustrative forms:
"Capturing movement in a static medium is a constant challenge. Flesh and bone sit and hang in a particular manner in accordance to their mass and tautness, kinetic energy and muscular tension.
"And what's more, all of these factors undergo constant change moment to moment. The ceramic medium on the other hand, once fired, has a uniform density, is completely stiff and hard and is utterly inert. It requires shaping of a very sensitive and subtle manner in order to suggest physical properties so very different to its own.
"Complex forms like humans and animals are made up of many basic forms. Training oneself to recognize these forms, and then to render them simply, takes years upon years. Even after fifteen years of practicing I'm still discovering ways to do just that. It is a continuous process of learning".
Nisha is the designer and painter. Her joyous, ethereal drawings of animals and people burgeon with life; demanding brilliant colours and a luscious, rich patina. She describes her reasons for creating as a desire to bring colour and happiness into people's lives. "I really believe that people need to see beauty around them, and what better way than to surround yourself with functional objects that reflect those feelings?" True creativity bursts forth when Nisha sits down to draw the initial image:
"Each bowl rests on the animals or humans and I strive to come up with images that integrate both. I feel that my most important tool is color, and I will go to any length to achieve the color I see in my head. That may mean layering the colors and firing the bowl in the kiln several times. I use the natural world and patterns adapted from ancient Greek culture as well as the influence of masters such as Klimt and Schiele.
"There is no cutting corners when it comes to technique. Catching movement in one line is a challenge beyond compare. I also find now that the perfect tone or shade can pull everything together".
A living testimony to the union of timeless beauty and masterful technique, Dan and Nisha Ferguson, now DaNisha Sculpture, enjoy representation in three countries: Canada, the United States and Mexico.
