Evanescence. To disappear gradually from sight. Beauty. An extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.
an Etruscan wall fretting away in the sun
a faded manuscript
fragments from the worn and tattered cloth of an old kimono
the heat cracked glaze of a wood-fired vessel
My studio practice is honed to creating small gestures of homage to the beauty in the world- a beauty found in simplicity, modesty and humility. Often the homage is to nothing more 
than a fleeting moment vouchsafed in memory, the ephemeral moment which all too quickly fades from sight. In winter I see decay and death at my feet on the floor of the forest, in the fallen mossy branches of trees and rotting detritus hidden away from the light.
On the shore of the beach weathered fragments from a storm wrecked dinghy appear from drifts of sand, the patina of time passing visible in the layers of faded pigments. Drifting through the streets in a small village on the Ligurian Sea in Italy my gaze is arrested by a river of rust meandering down a terra cotta stucco wall.
Time, water, salty air and fire in the crucible. A dance with clay, fibre, metal and wood. Surfaces peeling back, shedding skins, exposing the raw life beneath.
In solitude the painter becomes a Zen monk in meditation. Her calligraphic gestures read as haiku written in the stillness.
Desiree is the founder of The Temenos Studios
