Regardless of the medium I'm working in, whether it be or hand built or wheel thrown clay forms, I like to leave traces of the human hand or gesture. This allows for a sense of touch and sensuality that can exist in the play, in the dialogue between form, surface texture, and color. The quality of my pieces has to do with a tension between organic and structured forms, a search for an inner sense and motion, for rhythm and musicality…attempting to breathe life into different combinations of inert materials.
Making the leap from one medium to another...
In a very central and fundamental way, the technical parts of a clay vessel are the same as the human/dancing body ... the foot, body, neck, mouth and lip. For me this implies how a form (or a dancing body) relates to the ground it stands on, how it occupies the space around it and how opens or closes itself to the space above it.
But also in its concentration and sense of disciplined physical
practice, working with clay is similar to making choreography
and performing. Regardless of the medium, for me it's always
been about finding the equilibrium between being active and
being responsive, betweenlistening and guiding,
listening and following,
listening and taking control,
listening and surrendering,
listening and enjoying,
listening and being critical ...in other words, to be in dialogue with one's medium.
In both media, I continue to move the elements around until they are eventually integrated in form and feeling, held together by some intangible and subjective threads that can't always be named.