Hiromi Kanada

Balance is an essential concept in my life. Transitioning from Japan to the United States in my mid-teens seeded my curiosity in art as a new method for exploring, expressing, and communicating. Since then, I explored several art media and my interest in art and design expanded over time as I constantly searched for connections across various subjects. An aspect of working with ceramic material that brings particular interest to me is its duality. I seek to combine the aesthetics in the ceramic objects and its utilitarian functions.

My work is concerned with the question of how to live, finding my own cultural values and creating happiness through making objects that are useful in current culture. My work includes tableware, jewelry, and furniture that can be used as tools in daily life to positively impact one’s lifestyle. By combining traditional hand skills and the use of machinery, I create various prototypes, plaster molds, and samples in ceramic material. The size, proportions, texture, curve, weight, and colors are all important aspects to both utilitarian and aesthetic properties in the design process. Through this repetitive process of research in materials, techniques, and designs, I seek to discover both practical and theoretical designs with consideration toward usefulness, uniqueness, and longevity.