Profile written by Linda Schofield.
In a career stretching 20 years, Nicky Coady has travelled a journey of inspiration and transformation, a personal and professional exploration that has stamped its footprint across a lifetime of work.
A well established professional now, Nicky Coady can still recall vividly her first encounters with clay in the early l970's while raising her two children. Away from the confines of an office, she took the opportunity to explore her creativity and artistic interests and by chance, the medium was clay. With memories of her own childhood spent by the hillsides and deepwater natural harbour of Dartmouth, Devon and the remarkable landscape of Zambia, it is hardly surprising that her passion for texture and the organic form was to emerge in early work and to recur throughout her career.
Nicky's decision to pursue ceramics professionally was cemented when she was awarded the Ceramic Prize in the l976 Lane Cove Art Show by LLoyd Rees. "I had been working on large handbuilt multi spouted forms and having such a well respected Artist award me the prize and describe my work as 'innovative' really gave me the impetus to start my professional career", she said.
The l980's saw Nicky immerse herself in developing her own sense of concept and expression. "I went to many, many workshops to find out as much as I could", none more influential than one with prominent New Zealand potter Len Castle, who shared her affinity for texture. Working with some of Castle's concepts, she strengthened her technical skills and found a sensibility to organic structures. This touched a nerve and instigated her interest in manipulating clay forms by stretching, flapping and beating clay, giving her an appreciation for creating freedom within desired forms.
Emerging from this process are Nicky's ritual vessels large, earthy handcoiled forms that are deeply textured on the exterior, reminiscent of weathered sandstone or a
rough ironbark trunk. In recent years, she has added depth to these forms with the application of crystalline glazes on the interior. This blending of exterior surface treatment, with the glassy texture of the crystalline glaze has created a striking result, much like a rockpool one might stumble on deep in a rainforest.
Textured bottles are another form that Nicky has continued to develop throughout her career. Tall and slender, the bottles were initially textured heavily, reflecting shedding tree bark but recent forms have taken on softer characteristics, with a greater emphasis on texture through glazing and stamping.
Taking on more formal studies at Brookvale TAFE in the 1980's, Nicky pursued her interest in the asymmetrical beauty of nature and created forms that merged handbuilt and thrown elements. "Erosion" is a piece that explored the relationship between internal and external space. "I found that this could best be expressed through joining two thrown forms and adding coils, which gave me greater control over the interaction of light and space" she said.
"Metamorphosis" is a highly burnished handbuilt piece, awarded the 1999 Hunter's Hill Art Exhibition Ceramic Prize.
In the l990's, having firmly established herself as a professional Ceramic Artist, Nicky extended to new ideas and concepts. In the mid l990's she produced her "Ned Kelly" teasets, replicating the tactile metallic attributes of corrugated iron through use of surface textural treatment and a black pewter glaze she developed. In 2002, she began producing "Jugs with Attitude", as a series of jugs with various textures and glazes, each jug taking on its own personality and attitude. In this latest series, she is emerging from the work which is playful and fun, increasingly relaxed and self assured.
On graduating from TAFE in l986, Nicky was invited to teach at Ku ring gai Community Arts Centre and continues to do so to date. She feels strongly that this is part of her contribution to the ceramic world, to not only express herself through her own work but to share her talent and enthusiasm with many students, building their confidence and enjoyment with clay.
Nicky has been generous with her time in other ways too, contributing to exhibitions for WIRES fundraising events, as a committee member for the North Shore Craft Group for the last five years and Vice President of the NSW Potters' Society 1999 2001.
"Even after working with clay for over twenty eight years, my passion for it intensifies daily. The creative process grows slowly, each time my hands touch clay and I unload a kiln, I can see the next step. Step by step, the constant challenge of working with so many elements gradually unfolds" says Nicky. Much like the ripples from a stone cast into a pond, her work has gained momentum from a small beginning much has developed, separate but inextricably linked by the regeneration of a theme energised by passion.
Nicky Coady's work has shown across Australia, including Freemantle Arts Centre, Cowra Regional Art Galley, The Gallery on Lurline, Katoomba, Gannon House and Gleneaon Craft Expos, Sydney, Lovedale Limited Edition Expos and currently at Ferry Artists' Gallery, Wiseman's Ferry and the Ogishi Craft Centre, Hunter Valley.
Her professional retrospective, "The Ripples of Time celebrating 20 years" was held at Bancroft Gallery, Recreation Ave.,Roseville in 2007.
