Artist Statement
Using stoneware clay, I hand-build large, abstract, forms that speak to the concepts of growth, transformation, and eventual decay.
I have always been drawn to objects whose history is written upon their surface: The river rock worn smooth from centuries of tumult; the bleached, chewed bone found on the desert floor; the bare-bones landscape of the American southwest. These things speak to me of timelessness, mystery, and the inevitability of change.
I’m also creating metaphors for human nature, and how humans exist in society. We are all the culmination of all that we experience in our lifetime. How we process, express, and share these cumulative experiences is what defines our personalities and relationships. In my work, that original “totality” is represented by the large, full, simple forms. The idea of expression is represented by the elements growing off the large forms. This expression might be straight forward and fluid or repressed and convoluted. In some instances, it might barely be expressed at all.
Finally, my pieces are formal compositions, with attention given to the play between balance and tension. In a way that’s a bit difficult to describe, I “hear” the pieces as I build them, with each element adding a note to the completed score. I imagine bass/full elements grounding the piece, treble/smaller sections lifting areas up, and staccato points and ridges adding accent and definition.
My pieces are hand-built, using pinch, coil and slab construction methods. After construction they are sanded smooth, sprayed with layers of slip and terra-sigilatta, burnished, and fired in oxidation to 2200˙.