About
BIOGRAPHY
Asta Bubliene is a ceramic artist, illustrator and surface pattern designer living in Kew Gardens, New York. She was born and raised in Lithuania where she received her MFA in Ceramic Arts from the Vilnius Academy of Art. Soon after graduating Asta came to the United States and settled in New York where she pursued studies in graphic design at the Fashion Institute of Technology earning a BFA in graphic design. After working in advertising design field for about 10-years she started taking pottery classes and creating pottery again. She has been exhibiting at various galleries in United States and selling ceramics at fine craft shows. Her love of drawing also let her to develop her illustrations and patterns, which are available for licensing.
Artist Statement
My work has been formed by all the times spent during my childhood walking in the pine forests of Lithuania, gathering wild berries, mushrooms and spending time outdoors. This deeply felt connection to nature, combined with my everyday living experience in an urban environment, translates into the pots I make. Working with clay I feel my connection to the earth and nature, which allows me to create forms that are both functional and beautiful, and incorporate a life and character of their own. I like to combine simplicity and opulence in my designs and for the design to follow and enrich the form of the object. I combine organic imagery and motifs with geometric ornaments and abstract designs to reveal a juxtaposition of natural beauty to man-made environments. I leave a part of myself reflected in each pot I create and hope to share the warmth and joy of making them with those who use my pots. There is a diverse range of influences in my work. Nature plays a major role as inspiration in my pottery as well as historical Japanese ceramics and art, medieval manuscripts, the Art Nouveau period art and folk art, with a touch of the pagan.
Process
I work on a potter's wheel with porcelain clay. Delicate thin lines are applied using a slip inlay technique at the greenware stage and both underglaze and glaze decoration is added at the bisque stage. I create two bodies of work, one fired in an electric kiln in an oxidation atmosphere to cone 6 and another fired to cone 10 in a reduction gas kiln.