Artist Statement

In the late 1990’s I began a full time pursuit of clay producing a wide range of wheel thrown and hand built sculptural forms that were Raku fired. I strived for forms with a simple, elegant uncluttered surface so as not to compete with the wildly organic results the smoke and flame of Raku delivered. First, glazed surfaces rich in copper luster’s and later, an exploration of slip-resist techniques whereby smoke penetrates masking layers of slip/glaze to deposit organic carbon patterns into the clay surface.

As time passed an inner need to create my own decoration began to advance in my work. Trips to museums and a study of ceramic antiquities pointed to illustrative uses of clay and led to my current series of illustrative clay tiles.

The tile became a plain canvas from which emerged a three dimensional landscape from the wet formless clay, its final texture left dry and somewhat earthy. Fractionalizing or slicing an image into its component elements originated from my love of Asian art and that perspective of a Chinese screen. Each panel (tile) has its own value here, yet is part of a larger more complete clay landscape inspired from locations in my native New England.