Melanie Bourget

The art of Melanie Bourget focuses on the human being. She creates figurative sculptures in a contemporary yet a little offbeat style, oscillating between realism and fantasy. Then, she subjects them to the raku technique. Heads, busts and torsi of women with crazy hairstyles, mysterious features and dreamy little faces are in few words the poetic and fragile characters that live in the world of Melanie Bourget. These ceramic artworks are alive; they transmit deep and mixed feelings; through the cracks of glaze we can see with accuracy, the human soul.

----------

Heads Series

Melanie Bourget was born in Nantes, a lovely little French city, where she lives and works today. A member of the Ateliers d'Art de France, her sculptures have been travelling all around France and Europe, participating in several gallery exhibitions and art shows. Today, most of the cermaics of Melanie Bourget belong to several private collections.

----------

Busts Series

Melanie Bourget creates busts of women (and men), sculpted from clay and then raku fired. With quite a bit of quirk, mysterious, dreamy, enigmatic and charismatic, the contemporary charachters in the world of Melanie Bourget are simply arresting. Through the unique touch of Melanie Bourget and the volatile raku process, these lovely creatures come to life to transmit deep and mixed feelings as they enter our world too.

----------

Torsi Series

The raku’s unpredictable results and intense colors are two important elements in the creation process of Melanie Bourget. Step by step, and on their own, the characters will define their unique personalities. Melanie Bourget gets to know more about the figures she creates, as the raku process moves forward. Her dialogue with her artworks is permanent, surprising and unique. Even giving names to these characters becomes a difficult exercise: they want to be totally free.

----------

Statues Series

The technique applied by Melanie Bourget, the raku (楽焼 raku-yaki), is a type of Japanese pottery that is traditionally used in the Japanese Tea Ceremony, most often in the form of tea bowls. It is traditionally characterised by being hand shaped rather than thrown; fairly porous vessels, which result from low firing temperatures; lead glazes; and the removal of pieces from the kiln while still glowing hot. In the traditional Japanese process, the fired raku piece is removed from the hot kiln and is allowed to cool in the open air.

However, the familiar technique of placing the sculpture in a container filled with combustible material, introduced by Paul Soldner, is not a traditional raku practice. Raku techniques have been modified by contemporary potters and artists worldwide.

----------

Duo, Trio...

Mostly women, few men, sometimes children, couples, or even animals, the creatures of Melanie Bourget assume their unique personalities and obvious interactions. They allow themselves to be and live together, as if they knew each others for years, even without any apprehension of the artist herself or of the viewers. The daily life of the ceramics of Melanie Bourget is full of exchange, friendship and love. This total harmony suddenly created by placing two or three sculptures together reflects the endless emotion embedded within each character, each artwork.

----------

Ceramic Lamps Series

The ceramic lamps of Melanie Bourget will add an arty touch and will certainly accent the interior. With the light on, the white robes of these young women will be shinning and reflecting on the intense colors of the glazed ceramic sculptures.