About
My work explores how to honour the subtle experiences that make us human in an attempt to, somehow, restore the sacred aspect of existence to our lives.
Objects bear witness to human beings and to our relationship with the environment and everyday life. I’m particularly drawn to ceramic material, used since ancient times, as it represents the mutability of matter and the creative principle of giving form.
The material dimension is essential to my practice. Each piece is primarily created with my hands and through the sense of touch — the mother of all senses. When modelling clay, I touch an object that does not yet exist; just as in painting, I connect with emotions that are only revealed during the very act of creation.
Through this intimate process of creation and self-integration, a bridge is built between the physical and the spiritual, opening a path towards a deeper understanding of our human nature. This understanding helps me to connect more authentically with my environment, seeking balance amidst the alienation caused by living in an increasingly digitalized world — in which the human experience is often reduced to images and consumption.
My work is an invitation to awaken the imagination in our everyday life, to touch and inhabit the world from a more primitive, intuitive, and symbolic perspective — a reminder that we experience life in a holistic way.
Bio
Esther Lara (1988) is a Spanish ceramic artist and painter.
She graduated in Illustration at Escola Massana in the city of Barcelona in 2012, driven by her enduring passion for drawing. One year later, she embarked on her career in the fashion industry as a print designer and has been working as a freelancer since 2016. It was during this time that she meanwhile began her journey in ceramics, learning from many professional ceramists at different clay studios in Barcelona. In working with clay she discovered a deep connection with such material she never experienced before.
Nurturing a more spiritual perspective in daily life, her artwork is mainly a poetic exploration of the human experience where the human figure expresses itself through the strength of its own vulnerability, and animals are portrayed as a symbolic expression of our wildest instincts.
Her time is now primarily devoted to ceramics as she expands her practice in Barcelona, Spain.