The rabbits might be good wallpaper strippers but Kylie Matheson does not turn a hair. To the Dunedin artist these animals are her models.
Known for her playful ceramic sculptures of animals from tuis to bears, Matheson lives and breathes her work - hence the two rabbits hiding under the chair in the living room and her sculpting material spread out over the kitchen table.
With her coffee machine and fridge close at hand, Matheson is happy working at home with her animals to talk to.
"The animals are here, the fire is on. I’ve tried to work in different spaces but this works for me."
It has taken time to get to this point. She has been a working artist for 18 years, first painting and making earrings and miniatures from Fimo, then for the past eight years working with ceramics.
It was while travelling the country in a house bus that she stopped in Napier, where she had her first go at pottery, something she always felt was too daunting to try herself. However, she found a woman at a local pottery group, who was only too happy to help show her the ropes.
"She set me on my way and I had this vision of what I wanted to do. A lot of how I approach work is just by doing it."
That was to sculpt animals.
"I’ve always been fascinated by them since childhood. I’ve always had animals and could sit for hours watching them, learning their behaviours - even if it is ripping wallpaper off the wall."
As it was easier to be in one place with kilns, she settled in her hometown of Dunedin, where dog Dharma was joined by a cat, the rabbits and a few chooks.
"I was really worried about bringing the rabbit home originally because my dog was quite feral. The first time I brought Jack home the dog was busy cleaning him. It was quite bizarre.
"When the rabbit didn’t like me I had to get another of her own kind to talk to, hence the two."
However, she is not able to befriend all the animals she likes to sculpt - such as the bears.
"It’d be pushing the limits a little bit," she jokes.
It is the thought process behind her creations that takes the time, she says.
"I think my work stands quite strongly when they’re paired with something and have that interaction. It is that idea of the work before the work arrives."
After a few trials of different animals she has found her bears and rabbits to be her stronger pairings.
"Some things just work and some things you think will work don’t, ratios aren’t always 100%, my work’s not that realistic in that sense. I think sometimes things have to be out of kilter a little bit for the storyline to be a little clearer."
It was her pairing of a badger and squirrel that she submitted and made the top 30 finalists out of 200 entries in the Portage Ceramic Awards recently.
"It’s a little bit surreal, a really good opportunity. When I first got into ceramics Portage was the thing, the book you went to, to see what was happening. It’s rather exciting to be part of it."
The piece, When Will the Acorns Come Badger? , was inspired by her English grandfather, who she describes as a storyteller, a wise man and mentor for whom there were no excuses - "you just got on and did it".
"So I think that is how I approach life really.
"He introduced me to animals at an early age. He used to take me horse trekking at an early age. He was also well travelled and on his travels he’d picked up a lot of fine art and animal sculptures. I think the English animals may subconsciously be coming from that influence."
"The squirrels I just find a little bit quirky and characterful."
Created from paper apertures and clay, the work is done on her kitchen table and at the back of her house is a glaze room where she can safely use the materials required.
"I’m lucky I can chose to work at home. I really enjoy that side of it but you do spend a lot of time by yourself speaking to the animals."
It does mean she can struggle a little bit when she gets out into the "real world" and has to make conversation with adults.
"It can be a little bit daunting. Often for a show you can have your head down working towards a show for four months and all of a sudden you have to resurface as a professional with something exciting to say - often "its really good weather for clay drying" is all you’ve got."
So she has to push herself to get out and be social sometimes.
"It is quite easy to have conversations with clay drying and squirrels and rabbits but I feel like there is so many different stages. Its when you’ve got your head down and are completely emerged in it that you are at your most creative."
The facial expressions on her animals are what makes them so distinctive which is where her "models" come in. Dharma, who died in February, was a blue heeler with a very expressive face.
"Dogs and bears are very similar in facial features so it was really good to get noses and eyebrow expressions so the works do take on a little bit of a human character."
She finds people relate to her work in different ways. It is something special if someone can feel something in the work that she could.
"I had this show and this big burly bloke stood there in the way and he wouldn’t get out the way. He said he didn’t want to buy the work, wasn’t an art lover or an animal lover, ‘I don’t know what it is about your work but there is something, I’m intrigued’. For me that was really nice. I’m really happy if someone can relate on that level."
Matheson brings her clay in raw and breaks it down so it is more user-friendly to create with.
There are shelves around the living room with work in various stages of drying. It can take four weeks to dry before she can safely put it in the kiln without it exploding.
Then there is the occasional shrinkage problem.
"This was one of my favourite pieces but they’ve dried at different rates and they don’t interact like they used to. Even after eight years when you think you’ve got the problem solved there is something else to think about."
She remembers someone saying to her that being a ceramicist is being like a rocket scientist only harder and more technical.
"You only manage to get a hold of one thing then something else changes - with Covid the materials changed and you had to adapt again."
In eight years she has only had two pieces come out exactly as she had envisaged them. And she puts the kiln on once a week.
"Every time, I think I’ll get it next time. You’re just not going to let it beat you."
She makes her own glazes, having had a good mentor to put her on the right track.
When she started out she used a high gloss but decided that did not flatter the works very well, so she found a satin glaze that allowed the work to be viewed in its best form.
"And you want something that people can dust - that’s the reality of it."
Each animal is finished in its own way, something she still feels she has to master.
"There’s a pile of work over there that needs to be finished but I don’t know how to finish them. It’s another skill I’m yet to conquer.
Matheson also sees her work as her legacy as she decided having children was not for her.
"I wondered how would things go on, so I quite like the idea people will be dusting a Matheson for some time."
Life as a full-time artist is never easy but Matheson is finding that her work is selling and getting recognition after so many years of hard work.
"For years I was cutting my own hair and eating porridge. Cheese was like the monitor. If I had a block of tasty cheese, I knew I was doing OK. If there was a block of cheese and brie, you knew it was quite a good month. And if there was cheese, brie and blue in the fridge, you knew you were doing really well."
When her solo show earlier this year sold out, friends who could not make it delivered 17 blocks of cheese to her show.
"It was the ultimate compliment. Cheese was like currency - it’s quite nice not to have to count those pennies."
She is happy that she has been so determined to make it work.
Matheson does not see the subject matter changing any time soon as she feels she still has a lot to explore with her series of bears and rabbits.
She is busy preparing for shows in Christchurch and Wellington next year and has just booked a trip to the United Kingdom, where she plans to do lots of research photography.
"It’s really exciting. Lots to look forward to."
TO SEE
Portage Ceramic Awards Te Uru, Titirangi, until March 5, 2023.
