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About Stephanie Cunningham
Stephanie at work ceramic dogs in studioceramic dogs in studio
My work is mostly influenced by animal forms and I particularly love exploring my relationship with horses and dogs, having spent much of my childhood in Scotland growing up with them. I have always had animals around me and the connection I have with them is the essence of my work. Many years of observing them and the deep love and respect I have for them, is what I hope to express in my work.

The ceramic forms I make are stylised to emphasize power, elegance and grace or to convey a familiar holding of the body or movement of the head, perhaps a comical movement or a deep sense of peace in a resting form.

The natural world has always inspired me, a love of wild places and spiritual connection with the land and sea. I especially love the west coast of Scotland for its mountains and sea lochs, its soft mist and coruscating light, and West Cornwall for its dramatic coastline and granite outcrops which themselves suggest ancient animal forms emerging from the land. It is here in West Cornwall I now live and work. I love to walk its coast paths and woodlands observing the birds and wildlife living here. I am thrilled by the prehistoric presence of cormorants drying salty wings and their effortless motion through water and sky, the swift shyness of the fox or the snuffling badger at dusk. In my large hare and cormorant forms I try to find a stillness, somewhere that connects the past to the present and the earth to the ethereal – a kind of meditation.

My work is sustained and nourished by my daily yoga practice which unites the physical and spiritual elements of my work.