ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Ceramics in the Raw
Clay becomes stone.
The making of this work is a meditation in clay. Using stoneware and native clays (collected in Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota), hand built and high fired to cone 10, this work is a celebration of raw clay; a humble mirror of our earth; a symbol of the processes of time, geology, and transformation.
Stripped of artifice, residing in the essence of the earth itself, clay has a voice and expression of its own. Transformed by fire and atmosphere clay becomes like stone, the physical foundation of the world in which we live, and reflects the potential of raw earth. In the raw, this potential beckons us to abandon the tyranny of reason and analysis; and, offers us the opportunity to discover a truth that lies in the physical world – of emotive feelings, of perception, and of touch. This truth reaches beyond the stricture of the spoken word and beyond verbal articulation.
These ceramic works are then a metaphor for our interdependence as humans with our world – the human, the physical, and the spiritual. Hand built and incorporating native clays, they reflect an ancient tradition, continuing across time, that enriches us. As symbols of history and transformation, they invite us to contemplation – of ourselves, of our place in time, and the impermanence of all conditioned things.
“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form;
There is no emptiness apart from form,
And there is no form apart from emptiness.”
- The Heart Sutra
Life on Porcelain
This work is a contemplation on looking; and, endeavors to marry the intimacy of the human form with the sensuality of porcelain. Drawn from life directly on porcelain with underglaze, the images are taken from a 30-60 minute pose. Unglazed pieces are further refined in silverpoint.
Life drawing is about looking; but, looking in the sense of seeing into the essence of another human being. To lift the veil from the facades of life is to see a reflection of ourselves; our shared emotions, strengths, and vulnerabilities. The human form, discerned with profundity, is imbued with the radiance of poetry. As is porcelain. Porcelain has the character of delicate purity. The medium lends itself to flowing voluptuous forms, common to the human form.
As a contemplation on looking, this work aims to illuminate the beauty of humanity.