As an artist I feel that some irrational images have a potential far greater than to merely be irregularities in our conscious life.
They are an expression of our mental, emotional and spiritual constitution.
In my work I delve the area where the strange is not just unusual, but holds an imaginative force within. The irrational which finds a true design is no longer just a weird image, but acquires a creative mythologenic power.
My ceramic sculptures are a continuation of a long tradition of combining mythological symbolism with known reality, with the purpose of creating a language not for the intellect but for the spirit. When one works within this ‘emotional’ and spiritual framework, the process often begins with an instant intuitive vision. One allows the unconscious to reveal images unhampered by the intellect, and afterwards one interprets the images as one world attempt to explain ones dreams in the morning.

Myth functions in our society in a similar way. It could even be said that myth and mythological creatures arise unconsciously in a culture, and by examining myth one can learn much about the hidden personalities and desires that lie within a society.
In times of great danger, life threats and an uncertain future people go back to the imaginary, the fantastic and the magical.

Religion, faith and a sense of balance have been breaking down if are not utterly disintegrated already in our world under the division of the two, and the need for spiritual structure seems greater than ever. My work as an artist and the way I live my life in general is a reflection of these needs.

My intention as an artist therefore, is not for people to use their intellect when viewing my sculptures, but for them to perceive them with their intuition. As the ancient Hermetic adage goes, ‘As above, so below’… In the spirit that I created, so will my work be perceived. Perhaps then, people will be carried into their mythical self.

I consciously choose to make ‘creatures’, as a means of tricking people out of their ratio and into their intuition without their immediate awareness. Although our world has become far removed from nature, some things such as the wild otherness of animals and the magnificence of nature remain intrinsically pure in our imagination, and provide a natural link to the emotional and intuitive parts of ourselves.

It is not my intention that my sculptures should only be interpreted on a symbolic level, as is the case with the mythological creatures of earlier times.
More humbly, I hope that the manifest vision of my fantastic creatures as a whole serve as a reminder of different forms of perception, that once played a major role in Western consciousness, but nowadays languish on the backburner of our culture. May these perceptions help us to perceive our life from a wider angle.

Silke Wolter