"My ceramic wall art is about energy. Whether focused in a single form, or gathered in composed groupings, the works stem from my belief that what surrounds us and our lives is the constant swirl, flow and transfer of energies. While some convey movement and others exude stillness, in all my pieces, I try to embody a force of life and spirit. I’m curious about the evocative nature of shapes, colors, surfaces, and the poetic power of compositions. I love paintings, especially abstract ones that don’t seemingly have any message, yet quietly, deeply move my core –– there’s a purity to looking at things on a wall. You just look. And have a moment. Of pause. Of thought. At times, a connection. At best, a sense of fullness. As a medium, clay is often associated with utilitarianism. I use clay to make works for walls to look at and live with, believing that art is elemental and essential to the balance of life, and serves a function of nourishing our inner lives and souls. With a tendency for botanicals, I gravitate towards abstraction for universal reach and reduction for clarity.

I was born and raised in New York, and have a BA in East Asian Languages and Cultures
from Columbia College, Columbia University, a BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and an MFA from Hunter College, City University of New York. I spent a year in Japan on a Fulbright exploring the hierarchies and histories of Japanese ceramics, while focusing on the avant-garde ceramic group, Sōdeisha, and its founder, Yagi Kazuo. After taking a hiatus to raise our sons (and realize that children and clay are uncannily similar - both are intensely time sensitive, require focused commitment, attention, and care, are moldable but only to a certain extent), I work in a studio in Long Island City, Queens, NY shared with my favorite artist husband, Zilvinas Kempinas."

– Angela Okajima-Kempinas