Shangri-La

Contextual Statement

Material, place, and transformation

Martie’s Shangri-La Series grew from her years in Hong Kong, where teaching, raku practice, coastal observation, and experimentation with cone 6 electric firing reshaped her approach to vessels. Shimmering glass pools, turquoise passages, shell-like ridges, and folded ceramic surfaces evoke a private landscape situated between the city and the South China Sea. Crushed glass intensifies the illusion of depth, while small porcelain spheres appear suspended within glassy areas like luminous mineral deposits. The works are not literal depictions of a single shore. Instead, they transform remembered seacoasts into imagined refuges—small ceramic environments where water, geology, reflection, and fantasy meet. The series also records a period in which Martie’s vessels were deeply shaped by teaching, experimentation, and her sustained engagement with ceramic communities in Hong Kong.