About

Sandra Thoma began making ceramics in 2017, enrolling in a course at the National Art School after her first child graduated from the HSC. At a time when much of her life had been devoted to raising a family and running businesses, ceramics gave Sandra something that was entirely her own.

Creativity, however, was never new to Sandra. It had always been part of the way she lived, whether cooking for the people she loves, bringing people together, dressing up for an occasion or simply bringing people together. Sandra has a particular talent for making people feel at home, and a generosity that extends well beyond her immediate circle.

Nearly a decade after first discovering clay, Sandra turned 60 and retired. It seemed like the right time to give ceramics “a red hot go”.

The works in the exhibition reflect a practice that has grown organically over the past nine years, and a woman who approaches life with curiosity, warmth and an enormous appetite for making things. For Sandra, ceramics is not about arriving at a particular idea of what an artist should be. It is about making, experimenting and, most importantly, enjoying herself.

“I’m doing something that scares me a little,” Sandra says. “Sometimes it takes you turning a significant age to re-find the joy in creativity you suppressed for so long”.