Artist’s Statement

I am very interested in the complete cycle of creating clay objects. Working on the wheel has provided a framework, grounded in functionality, which allows creativity to flourish. Functional demands inform aesthetics and vice versa creating an evolution that hopefully moves forward to better work. Imperfections that occur while aspiring to perfection are exciting and learning to let them be has been a challenge. Not setting out with strict limitations always allows some wiggle room to let something become something else. This makes each object’s creation different and the immense frontier of possibilities provides exhilaration. Wondering about the unknown results in the coming years of trial and error, a period that all potters eventually get under their belts, appeals to a sense of anticipation about the promise of the future.

Sculpture was the area of fine art I pursued in graduate school and this nonfunctional 3D experience provides a subconscious foundation to decide whether a form satisfies my internal aesthetic or not and allows me to trust decisions made on the wheel without dwelling on them overtly. The decorative motifs and the evolution of said motifs are inspired by admiring natural beauty as well as the gamut of manmade visual vocabularies. There is a certainty of action that is apparent with many painters, sculptors, calligraphers etc. in their brushstrokes or marks in clay that are evidence of a wealth of experience and honing that I always respond to and I aspire to have that quality show up in my own work.

Technique
I throw porcelain on the wheel and fire to cone 6 in an oxidation environment. One technique used frequently is painting a resist on the unfired piece freehand and later, etching away the exposed area with water. This technique can be repeated with drying time in between to create layers of etched design. Sometimes a colored slip is applied to the exposed area after the etching that accentuates the design by boosting the contrast between the clay body and the etched area. Another technique that is present to varying degrees is chattering. This is achieved by holding a metal “rib” at a particular angle while the pottery wheel spins at a certain speed and then letting the rib bounce or vibrate along the surface of the vessel. The longer it is done, the deeper and more pronounced the chattering.