The ceramic work of Elaine Godowsky includes large outdoor totems as well as indoor sculptures fired in a traditional high fired gas kiln using glazes, in a high fired soda kiln using oxides as well as the raku method using low fired glazes.

Godowsky's large-scale ceramic totems, some measuring 8 feet, are intended for the outdoors—made to withstand the elements—and inspired by the world of nature. Animals, birds, insects, plant-life and the human form turn up in her pieces. But these are no ordinary creatures, there is an Alice in Wonderland quality about them formed of the artist's imagination. Whether looking like caricatures of underwater life or denizens of the forest, all inhabit a world as she sees it, both weird and wonderful.

Godowsky conceives each totem as a whole, but executes them in sections, then assembles and glazes the final. The pieces are deeply carved and/or modeled in high relief—each glazed in a variety of radiant palettes consisting of oxides as well as traditional glazes. Other of her whimsical creations, like her giant spider, inhabit the outdoors, but they are at home indoors as well. The vessels made for outdoor use can be planted or sculptural just as the owls, spiders and birds.  Godowsky derives great pleasure from nature. She is a gardener who is a devoted advocate of safeguarding its realm. Her delight in the natural world imbues her work, making it possible for everyone to step through the looking glass.
 

Elaine Godowsky, BS, Art Education, Pratt Institute. Studies in ceramics include The Guilford Art Center, CT; workshops with noted ceramic artist Arnold Zimmerman. Participating member of the National Council of Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). Group shows at the John Elder Gallery, NYC, 1998; "The Madison Mile" outdoor sculpture exhibition, Madison, CT, ongoing; most recently, selected for the Fourth Biennial North American Clay Exhibition, 2003, Susan Peterson juror. 
 
Having just moved her studio from Brooklyn, NY to her home she is in the process of making new works to be fired in her newly built soda fired kiln.