Slow Down, You Move Too Fast, 8” x 10”; 2023. Colored pencil and graphite. Remember that irrepressibly upbeat 60s song, “Feelin’ Groovy” by the band, Harper’s Bizarre? Aw yeah, baby.
Recently, I sold this little piece and was quite happy to hear that the buyer was someone who was familiar with my ceramics (they have a handful of monsterpots) but was totally unfamiliar with my drawings and paintings…
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The tile, Nimue. In Japanese culture, wabi-sabi— to “embrace the imperfect,” is often a rationale for repairing broken pottery (kintsugi). With this philosophy there’s less trauma when damage occurs, often with a highlighting of the imperfection as a kind of journey or experience of the object. This tile had too much fragmentation and still would have to be fired again to stoneware temperatures that I’ve decided to use the pieces as glaze-testing pieces instead.
Heartbreak is only temporary pain as I scoop the shattered bits of tiles into the dustpan or repair kiln shelves from the bubbled bits of glass fused to their surfaces. My heart begins to mend from the many failures with every dried bit of greenware I dump back into the clay reclamation bucket. Because with every failure, I earn an experience which teaches me something new about my craft.
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Klaus' Greenman. 15" x 15". Red stoneware.
A dear friend of mine passed away last year and he left an enduring mark on my life....
Read MoreBeing an artist means sitting still to work on art for hours at a time to focus for a sustained period. It’s an absolutely essential component of making art (at least mine) and yet, it can be a bit contrary to one’s physical health to sit still for so long.
Here, I’m writing about my experience trying to dial in the right way to keep myself healthy and lean while still having enough time to get my work done and meet my deadlines.
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Summer is the second panel in the Seasons series for my friends, a lovely couple who now live in Arkansas. We met several years ago at an art conference and they were there as avid fans of imaginative realist art. They found my work and subsequently invited us to visit them. Sometime after that, they commissioned this series.
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Bob Ross superimposed over his painting, Oak On a Clear Day.
Can we separate the artist from their output? Can we value the genius of an artist’s ouvre if the artist is a jerk? Conversely, if the artist is a genuinely stellar human being but their work is sort of meh, will their art be as memorable and legacy-worthy? I think this question merits real analysis because I think it sheds a lot of light on how art is consumed by the public. It’s always said that people don’t buy art, they’re buying the artist. But why?
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“Family crest” stamps for a couple to be married in Ecuador. These will be used by a potter there to create a set of platters and cups for their household. 2023. These were sculpted or carved into terra cotta clay and then fired for hardness so they can be used again and again.
One of the challenges I faced while making ceramics over the past several years is how to re-create something as it was the first time. Someone will say— “Oooh, I love that!” and want the same thing. This is where molds and stamps come in handy….
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Lotus moonpot, 2022.
When I was a kid, I was more than slightly obsessed with little boxes of any sort. Then, I didn’t know for certain why. Perhaps because they held my most important treasures and keepsakes; I stashed….
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