About
Motto Motto explores colour, pattern and surface through a language of excess. Drawing from everyday forms of adornment and influenced by Japanese decorative culture and Heisei retro aesthetics, elements gather across the surface, suggesting an ongoing process of addition. Rather than resolving into a single composition, the work holds tension between control and overload: mixing, matching and clashing patterns free of strict boundaries or limitations.
Colour is used freely, allowing unexpected combinations to emerge, sometimes working together, sometimes sitting in tension. Influenced by maximalist aesthetics, the work embraces excess as a method of construction rather than decoration alone.
Motto Motto, meaning “more, more” in Japanese, reflects a desire for more pattern, more colour, more surface and more play, while remaining in a space of experimentation and testing.
About Marina Van Raay
Marina Van Raay is a Canadian Japanese ceramic artist based in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a graduate of the bachelor’s program in Craft and Design at Sheridan College.
Van Raay’s passion for clay and deep appreciation for craftsmanship was sparked by her father, who introduced her to pottery in 2016. Born in Japan, Van Raay moved to Canada at the age of five. Through her work, she explores the cultural experiences that have shaped her life, focusing on themes of nostalgia, identity and memory. She draws inspiration from childhood memories, often evoking feelings of innocence and optimism through her designs, processes and decorations. The language, culture and emotions tied to those experiences have shaped her perspective, prompting her to explore her upbringing through an adult lens and translate those memories into her ceramics.
Embracing play as a design method, Van Raay aims to capture its essence throughout the making process. She embellishes and decorates her work both before and after glaze firing, allowing spontaneity and emotion to guide her creative process.
Van Raay began her role as a Ceramics Artist-in-Residence at Harbourfront Centre in 2025.
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