Emma Estelle Chambers is a potter based in Little Rock Arkansas. She received a BFA in Painting and a minor in ceramics from UA Little Rock. She began experimenting making her own oil paint in university, collecting rocks and minerals around Arkansas and hand processing them into usable pigments. After graduating, she began using those same pigments in her ceramics practice, researching their use as ceramic materials. She received the artLAUNCH grant from the Windgate Foundation in 2024 and the Catalyze grant from Mid-America Arts Alliance the following year. She sells her work in central Arkansas at local shops and pop-up markets as well as her online store. She also works as a studio technician at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts and as an after-school ceramics teacher for 3rd and 4th graders and high school students.
About
In my artistic practice, I employ the use of wild piments foraged around Arkansas, my home state. I refer to a wild pigment as any material, but usually a rock or mineral, that I encounter unexpectedly in nature. These rocks and minerals contain impurities that formed during the natural process of their formation. These impurities remain intact throughout the refinement process, providing unique characteristics to the final pigments and a wild quality to the resulting art.
The refinement process begins with the collection of the raw materials. I source my rocks and minerals from Bauxite, Magnet Cove, the Saline River, and Little Rock. I involve the community in my collection process as well: I receive rocks from the Arkansas Geological Survey and local rockhounders. Involving the community means that I am not only directly referencing the land, but also its people. By involving the community, my art becomes a symbol of the community celebrating the land that we call home.
My method of making celebrates the raw, wild colors found in Arkansas. When used in ceramic glazes, the pigments yield interesting and unexpected results. The color of the mature glazes can vary wildly from those of the raw pigments. These results can vary even when using the same pigment but adjusting the glaze to pigment ratio.
My ceramic pieces consist primarily of vessels. The vessel, a container, represents the deliberate collection of something with the purpose to use and share later. This theoretical collection parallels my deliberate collection of the raw pigments. But instead of water or grain, my vessels are filled with the intent to share the colors of the earth, of the rocks and minerals found just outside our homes that are often overlooked.