Artist Statement – May 2006
Throughout my life, I have found that one of the most worthy things to honor and appreciate is Nature. A great deal of my time is spent outdoors in the woods or on the beach, examining organic materials such as shells, rocks, plants and pods. I am endlessly fascinated with these forms as they metamorphose through their life cycle and how patterns result from the natural growth processes. When the moss makes a cobblestone like pattern near the path, a fern unfurls, a fallen tree has a twisted motion about it, the spaces between the lines on a pumpkin shows signs of growth and distortion, a shell on the beach shows signs of weathering I am inspired.
My pots are a visual record of these cycles of growth and decay. I do not try to recreate these images but rather use them as a starting point for my own work. I build a framework from a nature inspired, textured slab of porcelain clay. By pushing and stretching the clay I attempt to emulate how the smallest possible intervention will re-organize natural space. When the piece is dry and almost complete the most beautiful things happen when decay and weathering are simulated with my sponge to form a comfortable, functional, utilitarian object.
Since utilitarian objects also require physical participation, I find immense pleasure in using nature’s cycle of life as an inspiration for a utilitarian object. My work is constantly changing as my life does, but the one constant is my need for the physical act of manipulating clay into something attractive and functional.