FUNCTIONAL ART • LEAF IMPRESSED • WOOD FIRED • SODA GLAZED

FORM and CONTENT must go hand in hand when I work with clay.  This TABLEWEARE is a clear result of this effort.  Growing organic heirloom vegetables for almost as long as I have been an art maker working with clay, I strive to marry both passions in these tableware forms.  

Since my tableware FORMS are intended for use with food, their aesthetic CONTENT is derived from the IMPRESSIONS of leaves I gather from the vegetable plants growing in the garden immediately adjacent to my studio.  As a designer, I enjoy exploring the compositional contrasts offered by the texture and complexity of dissimilar leaves.  No two are ever alike.  Consequently, no two pots are ever alike.  I cultivate and seek that diversity.

WOOD FIRING is much like gardening.  One must enter the process knowing there is only partial control of the outcome. Both are affected by the weather. Labor-intensive effort is sometimes rewarded with unexpectedly beautiful pots or vegetables.  

Most of my tableware forms have been SODA GLAZED.  In this technique, the entire kiln chamber is irrigated with a brine of soda sprayed in at peak temperature, 2350 degrees Fahrenheit. Where the soda glaze is deposited on the forms, depends on the flame path through the stack of pots. Again, variation is celebrated in the outcome. 

There is always a significant risk factor and often the outcome is disappointing. It is that very fact that drives an ARTIST creatively forward.  After more than 50 years of both gardening and working with clay, I AM STILL LEARNING.

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