2008 Craft Show Artists

Functional history has always been a fascinating arena for creativity. My recent explorations have involved the presentation of sets. What if a teapot becomes a combined single object set? When stacked it represents one thing, a head like "Hear to Here" but when separated it becomes the more traditional presentation of a teapot and cup. My utilitarian ware is made by using slabs of clay and press molds. Underglaze pencil is applied and fired to cone 6 to create the drawn imagery. Other glazes are employed for functional and/or visual effects.

My work is guided by the daily activities I engage in and the objects I use, in and around my home. To act conscientiously, especially the tasks we tend to engage in mindlessly - laundering, washing, sweeping, eating - is important. Paying attention to and finding beauty in these aspects of daily life fulfills essential spiritual and social needs. Thoughtfulness is evident in the way I handle clay and necessary when viewing or handling my work. I skillfully employ basic, traditional methods of hand building to emphasize the scope of possibility within the medium. By making objects out of a fragile and precious material, I expect the delicate nature of the work to provoke a heightened awareness and sensitivity on the part of the viewer. By paying attention to and finding beauty in simple acts, I ask the viewer to reconsider the role and function of these activities and objects as I beautify and memorialize them as artwork.

Landscapes and still-life's expressed through ceramic forms. Inspiration comes from the artist photos taken of nature. Porcelain and red stoneware are wheel-thrown and altered. Hand-mixed glazes are sprayed on and high-fired to cone ten.

Clay is a medium with endless possibilities. As such, I continuously experiment with all types of methods and materials. Presently my work deals with simple forms that provide a canvas for rich surfaces. The vessels are playful yet provocative with bold images of botanical and geometric forms. Ultimately, my goal is to reach a point where I am as pleased with the usefulness of a piece as I am with its vitality of form. The pieces are made from red earthenware and decorated with terra-sigillatas. The texture and depth are a result of graffito and resist techniques.

The concept of the vessel as the safeguard of the space inside is prevalent in all my work. I've been working with the lidded vessel for the past fourteen years; what brings me back to the thrown vessel time after time is the possibility of capturing the poise and vibrancy of clay as it expands outwards on the wheel. I'm interested in giving voice to subconscious experiences through free drawing, while the curves of the thrown piece influence the movement of the pencil over soft clay.. My vessels are hand thrown in porcelain, covered in black or bronze slip and carved in sgrafitto technique. Matt glazes are layered over the slip and fired in oxidation. Lids are hand built in porcelain, dipped in a bronze glaze and fired in oxidation.

Decorative hand pressed tiles and platters. The elaborative patterns are sculpted, carved, inlaid and painted. The compositions associate with surrealistic landscapes, theatrical stages, environments for different characters. They translate a dreamlike atmosphere, an impression, a feeling. The colors are reduced to a few, and gold luster and decals are applied as well. These expressive compositions show a cultural and ethnic diversity, mixing elements of art history, nature, oriental, baroque and art deco. Each piece is one of a kind.

The natural world, both grand and intimate, continues to inspire my ceramic exploration and vision. Many years of photographing nature and collecting shells, stones, pods, and wood in its myriad forms has further deepened my love and fascination with all that surrounds us. I work with a low fire clay body, building my sculptural forms with coils. These forms grow like a story unfolding before my eyes. I never know where it will lead me. I then gently carve each piece to define and further refine its undulating shape. Finally, I complete the sculptural form with numerous burnishings until I achieve the smooth stone-like surface which reveals the innate beauty of the clay surface. It is my hope that both visually and through touch, by running one's fingers gently along their surfaces, one will feel an intimate connection to both the natural forms and materials that inspire them.

I want my pots to engage people where they live, and play a part in their savoring of life. My pots are directly about food and flowers, cooking and display. My forms are spare. I employ heavy surface textures, weighty bases, and substantial rims and attachments. I focus on the foot and the rim of a form as the defining elements. They are intentionally rough and crude to aid in this definition. I use asymmetrical elements throughout to impart vitality and plasticity to the fired works.

I create these small nature inspired translucent porcelain vessels using a variety of techniques. I begin some forms on the potter's wheel and then alter by handbuilding, cutting, and incising. I have been exploring some newer forms which I create by handbuilding, pinching, and carving. I enjoy seeing how forms gradually come into being and trying to allow that to happen. I use microcrystalline matt glazes on the colored pieces and a simple white matt on the interior of the white ones. In porcelain, I am trying to catch the delicacy as well as the strength of nature's details. These pieces come to life in the sunlight.

These miniature teapots are initially created with the use of a pottery wheel and hand built techniques. To achieve deep, jewel-like glazes, the airbrush is used to spray high fired glazes as a base and accent coats. Then multiple layers of low fired type glazes are brushed either all over or on the shoulders of the work. Then these pieces are fired in a kiln several hundred degrees higher than a normal firing. This "over fire", although EXTREMELY risky, creates the over melting of the low fire glazes flowing over the high fire glazes. Unfortunately, many don't make it through to the final firing process because of the fluidity of the glazes. It is the unpredictable nature of this process that keeps the art form exciting and endearing. Each piece is a survivor in its own way - a successful, tangible manifestation during this long, nurturing process.

My ultimate desire is to create a poetic moment. I work as immediately as possible; in small groups; six to a dozen pieces at a time. Most pieces are wheel thrown in parts, the surfaces textured and assembled. I use a limited pallet of very sensitive glazes and fire often in a small kiln. It is a chaotic work cycle but it is very informative. Pots do not get old; I don't get stagnant doing one thing for too long. Ideas evolve quickly. Almost every week I am looking at new pots laid out across the grass. Some of them come inside, some land in the garden. All of them inform and predict what is next. Clay is demanding. You can get caught up in one aspect forever. I'm trying to see the whole process: how a piece is made, how the surface is addressed, how it is fired, and finally how will it be used. I'm trying to compress this process into a moment of clarity; a poetic moment where the piece reveals itself.

These works are one-of-a-kind porcelain sculptures inspired by the phenomenon of living organisms in the natural world. They are hand-built, unglazed, and fired to cone 10 in an oxidation atmosphere.

Terra Cotta, one of a kind sculpture dealing with the figure. Surface treatment includes layers of glazes, oxides, slips, and underglazes. Mixed media and found objects appear in certain pieces.

I suspect what keeps me engaged in the making of pots is the rich history and complex process of ceramics. The materials, kilns, firings, and the rhythm of the studio have become a comfortable part of my life, almost akin to a refuge. I tend to make complex pots, not understated in form or surface. By thinking of pottery as an avenue to explore color, line surface and form, I have discovered a wellspring of inexhaustible creative opportunities. My work is wheel thrown with porcelain clay and reduction fired in a gas fueled kiln. Shapes are altered when wet and sometimes assembled from thrown parts. Slips, oxides, glazes and resists are applied in a manner that reflects my passion for pattern.

Within the structure of the human form, my sculpture addresses concepts of intent, purpose & the pursuit of Truth. I am intrigued by what we think, do & say, by who we are and how we live - primarily at the soul level. The figures are handbuilt in stoneware clay with terra sigilatta, oxides, underglaze, & glaze. Multiple firings. Metal elements added both before and after firing. Fiber, wood and found objects.

One of a kind wheel thrown, carved and sculpted high fired translucent porcelain.

Wheel-thrown, white stoneware. Hand-decorated using brush, sgraffito, and wax resist techniques.

I use a translucent porcelain body because it has a beautiful surface, and it can convey the qualities of light and shadow that I wish to express. After I throw my vessel on the potter's wheel, I alter the form to set up a movement of soft shadow. When the porcelain is leather hard, I carve patterns to add energy and counterpoint. I burnish the surface and then I fire my work to cone 10, where the porcelain becomes non-porous and translucent, and one of the hardest surfaces known to man.

My work is wheel thrown, sometimes altered, and decorated using a variety of processes. These include: sprigging, sgraffito, faceting, and mishima. The pots are then fired in a wood and oil fired kiln, and salt glazed. My influences are diverse, ranging from Asian ceramics and American decorative arts to German Expresionist woodcuts and Picasso. My iconography reflects my interest in man's place in the natural world. Pottery has the potential to be powerful in the way it moves between spaces- the museum, the gallery, the kitchen, the living room. A vase can function to hold flowers or function as a simply visual pleasure.

From the smooth, white, translucent elegance of porcelain to the sturdy, forgiving, reliability of earthenware, for me there is no better medium than clay. Forms hold images, images fit forms and are kept relatively simple to accommodate whatever imagery may appear. Imagery is mostly intuitive, autobiographical, or drawn from art and ceramic history. The sgraffito technique, while labor intensive, produces a carved graphic clarity with a depth that I try to match with glaze.

Handbuilt stoneware vessels, using coils and slabs, altered and carved, cone 10 ash glazes

"For me, the beauty of functional pottery -- whether a dish, cup, or a vase -- lies in its simplicity, and how eloquently it complements what it contains". One of Akira's distinctive techniques involves brushing a Kohiki (porcelain white slip) glaze on to the clay and then stretching the clay to invest a textural energy that goes beyond surface decoration.

I work in stoneware and in porcelain creating dinnerware, baking and serving dishes, vases and other useful pots for the kitchen and table. I try to make pots with lasting appeal that can be discovered through the simple aesthetic pleasures of everyday use.

Using the elastic properties of porcelain I am able to mimic the effects of movement and gravity on a fluid substance. This work is all about surface tension. The work is made on a wheel head of my own design. This tool allows me to change the axis of each piece during the throwing process. I fire in reduction to cone 11. The pieces are created and displayed in compositions of two or more objects. The interplay and negative space is as important as the objects themselves.

Utilitarian porcelain tableware and sculptural vase forms and wall pieces. Innovative oxide slips and clear glaze application allows beauty to also be a function of our creations. The work is thrown, slab or handbuilt. The concept behind the work is to be useful as well as to challenge. We create drama in color, texture, form and weight.