The works in Ohigashi’s Botanical Textures series are art pieces—ceramic sculptures that mark a departure from her more commercial work in tableware. Brightly colored, intricately shaped, and vividly alive, these objets d’art reside on the border between playful and serene, realistic and fantastical.

Richly textured, with a depth of glaze and detail that rewards prolonged and repeated viewing, their forms seem to subtly shift with the angle of the light and the vantage point of the viewer. Their fascination lies partly in their ambiguity. Does a piece represent a cactus, or a flower, a sea urchin, or a seed pod? Perhaps all of the above? Without one simple answer,  it is up to the eye and heart of the beholder.

Ohigashi’s botanical shapes and hues are influenced by her training in agricultural research, childhood boat outings on the sea, and a life spent closely observing and tending to plants. Her work is steeped in these influences. The forms of her ceramic sculptures feel half familiar and nostalgic, half mysterious and strange. It is part of what gives Ohigashi’s works their unique power.

Using local pottery stone and drawing on Tobe ware techniques, Ohigashi re-imagines the medium. Her imaginative botanical art brings to life what can be done with Tobe ware porcelain.