Ceramic horse sculpture

For this sculptural horse I drew on the traditional Dymkovo toys — brightly painted clay figurines from Slavic folk culture. These toys typically depict characters of rural life: farm animals, men and women at domestic work. Originally small figures made for children’s play, today they are made and sold as souvenirs. But centuries ago they also served as talismans, gifted to children by relatives to protect them from harm. The horse was one of the most popular figures, given to young boys as a symbol of spiritual protection — an animal both playful and resilient.

Any act of creation, and art-making especially, is a way of reconnecting with one’s inner child. Like children playing with clay horses hundreds of years ago, the process of coiling, shaping and refining the form awakens imagination and demands full presence. Building this horse by hand became a way to reconnect with that playful, intuitive part of myself — an immensely grounding experience that forced me to be present with the material.

Clay carries a history of human touch, labour and storytelling. By taking a traditional folk object and making it anew, I felt a continuity with the generations before me. At the same time the horse became a personal object: by the time it was finished it had a personality I had come to know piece by piece. It ended up an object of comfort, strength and creative freedom.