Julia Weber Yensho

Julia Weber Yensho, is a contemporary ceramic sculptor. She was born in Baltimore and resides on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Julia went from mudpies under the pines as a child, to a career in pastry for two decades, and then on to scenic painting for the movies. This incredibly diverse journey and all its many influences has shaped her and her work. It has given her the need to express her passions through this malleable substance called clay. In Julia’s words: “The sensual feel, the understanding of our human compatibility with nature; this marriage is one that I will happily grow old with, and know the journey will always be fresh, always be true. The forest has always drawn me in; my passion for its many paths, and its organic textural diversity. Pure randomness has always fascinated me. Nature displays perfection in its asymmetry, for instance in the petals of a flower. I find it a great challenge to achieve, and this is just one of the expressive goals I try to bring out in my work.”

Her work is organic and ornate, spontaneous and stylized. Julia’s voracious approach to texture is what nature is all about. It drives this latest series, speaking to the natural world and all its beautiful gifts. Working primarily in porcelain, she crafts these one-off flowerheads and vessels in her studio in the quaint little town of Oxford, Maryland. Her work is instinctive and visceral to each piece, painstakingly sculpting every petal and stamen by hand so that no two flowers are identical. These unique flowers are created in porcelain and stoneware, then fired to high temperatures to create their uniquely textural qualities that make them her own. The creations are inspired by a passion for all things organically botanical. She then instinctively breathes life into the clay in the form of dahlias, chrysanthemums, daisies, hydrangeas and various other imaginative organic forms. A number of her works include the human form and its all important symbiotic relationship with nature.