Every Sunday, we turn the spotlight on some great creatives. This week, we have Aubrey Haskell of Vessels for Danu!
Aubrey, the creator behind Vessels for Danu, is a contemporary ceramic artist based in Scranton. She has always been creative as well as a lover of nature and fantasy. For the past seven years, she has been creating functional pottery and sculptures inspired by the shades and ripples of nature and the feeling of forgetting reality and stepping into a fairytale.
Aubrey grew up in the Pocono Mountains with little to do but find the fun in nature. Whether it was making fairy pies in the mud, weaving together daisy chains, or crafting wild stories swimming in the lake, she always found herself having the most fun with her creativity outside. In college, she fell in love with the familiar feeling of playing in the mud that came to her at the pottery wheel, and she has been creating ever since.
The name Vessels for Danu was inspired by the Celtic goddess Danu. Danu is the mother goddess of the earth and seas believed to be the origin of everything within Celtic folklore. Working a plain ball of clay that comes from the Earth into a beautiful, functional piece of art feels much like giving it life. Drawing from inspiration of the nature around her and the many stories of folklore she heard as a child, Aubrey throws functional pottery such as mugs, planters, and vases with touches of folklore and whimsy.
Aubrey has about 100 different creative ideas in her head at all times, and eventually one will inspire her to get on the wheel. Some of her most recent work has involved throwing mugs, planters, and vases on the wheel and then attaching little sculpted mushrooms to them afterwards. While she enjoys throwing on the wheel, she also loves to include her love for sculpting in functional pieces that make them feel more fun and whimsical.
For Aubrey, creating art is all about escaping the pressures and parameters that are placed on us by everyone else and expressing ourselves in our truest forms.
Learn more about Aubrey and Vessels for Danu on her website and various social media platforms:
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vesselsfordanu
🌐 Website: https://vesselsfordanu.com/about
🎧 Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vesselsfordanu
