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Artist talks about the ‘cycle’ of ceramics

Laura Wee Láy Láq speaks at the Surrey Art Gallery March 3.
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Laura Wee Lay Laq

Artist Laura Wee Láy Láq considers her ceramic practice not just one of taking from the earth, but of giving back.

On March 3 at 7:30 p.m., as part of the Thursday Artist Talk series at the Surrey Art Gallery, she’ll talk about working with clay and show examples of her unique hand-built pots made without glazes or a potter’s wheel.

“To take earth, give it personal expression, smooth it with a stone, give it to the fire, changing it from earth to stone, then embedding the clay into the dust of trees and making it vulnerable to the natural elements, completes a cycle – a cycle in which I am proud to play a part,” she says.

Wee Láy Láq’s ceramic career has spanned more than four decades.

Her one-of-a-kind, hand built, burnished and sawdust-fired vessels have been shown locally, nationally and internationally.

They are located in numerous public, private, and corporate collections.

Her work was shown in the Museum of Anthropology’s 2010 exhibit Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures presented with the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

In 2015, she was one of six recipients to receive a BC Creative Achievement Award for First Nation Art.

Wee Láy Láq is a member of the Stol:lo Nation which has its traditional homeland in the area around the lower Fraser River. (Visit her website at mmarkham.com/LauraWeeLayLaq.html)

There will be time for questions and conversation during and following the Surrey talk, which concludes by 9 p.m.

The event is presented by the Surrey Art Gallery Association in partnership with the Surrey Art Gallery and with support from the Arts Council of Surrey.

The gallery is located at 13750 88 Ave. For more information, call 604-501-5566.