Unique handbuilt sculptures in clay
Beatetude - my attitude towards life, based on my personal experiences, esthetic, and values
Beatetude - my attitude towards life, based on my personal experiences, esthetic, and values
A collection of hand built busts using earthen ware and stone ware clay, colored slips and glazes. They intend to represent universal ideas, and evoke emotions from the viewer.
Red earthenware, underglaze, oxides, slips, low fired electic; approx. 12”x11”x8”
This piece is about caring, care taking, self-care. When does need become neediness, when do we get/give permission to care for ourselves, and how do we find that balance?
This bust is about the difficulty of labeling identity. Where/how do you feel “at home”, either with yourself or as an individual in a community you may have been born into, been placed in by destiny, or even by force.
ca. 12” x 12 1/2” x 7 /12” stoneware, colored slips
ca. 13 1/2” x 12” x 7 1/2” stoneware, colored slips, glaze
ca. 12” x 12” x 7 1/2” midrange stoneware, colored slips, glaze
I have been having much fun creating busts from flat clay slabs. They provide a new canvas for the narrative I create on their “skin”.
“Sheeple” is a piece touching on a theme that is reoccurring in my work. The idea that things are never quite the way they seem on the surface, or at first glance.
earthenware sculpture, slip and underglaze decorated, low fired, approx. 12”x12”x8”
The symbolism of a gateway is rather obvious, and it is a recurring theme in my work. Whether it is a freestanding sculpture in its own right such as these, or whether they are incorporated within a sculptural piece, I am drawn to that theme.
I think of life in general as a continuing progression of transitions, nothing ever stays exactly the same. One life chapter ends, another begins, every day is a transition of sorts into the next, and we never really know what may lie ahead. We get lucky at times and take our luck for granted, other times we are not so lucky and that”s when we start wondering how we got there.
This is an example of my more or less obvious gateway-like sculptures. Gateways are symbolic of duality, you go through them, leaving something behind while heading on into something new.
Earthenware, glazes, oxides, lowfired electric, size 20”x13.5”x5.5”
This gateway version was inspired by a fascinating visit to Havana, Cuba where I discovered the work of Cuban ceramic artist Carlos Alberto Rodríguez Pérez which I instantly connected with.
This is an hommage to the place, its complex 500 year history, the resiliance of its people, and the wealth of creativity of Cuban artists that goes unrecognized by the commercialized art world of “the west”.
The emotional support snail expresses both our need of and our reluctance to ask for emotional support when we might need it most. It is often both slow in being accepted and slow in being called upon, but it is usually met with great appreciation when it finally arrives.
This small lowfired earthenware sculpture (ca. 12”x6”x3”) is about our need for emotional support, how we are often slow to seek it out, and at the same time how it is often slow in arriving when we need it the most.
I love metaphors, and I also truly enjoy a good mixed metaphor! This piece is a good example of how I try to weave metaphors together to express something more complex.
It holds the idea of a general feeling of being “in hot water”, a situation that would cause one to utter a gutteral “uh-oh”, and the revelation that one is woefully unequipped to make any significant headway in changing that situation.
The existential crisis Bunny. (Am I still relevant? What is my purpose in the world. who/what am I really?)
(Am I still relevant? What is my purpose in the world. who/what am I really?)
Adrift in a sea of words; no life line.
Adrift in a sea of words; no life line.
Women “of a certain age” remark at times how this cloak seems to have vanished from their closets.
Just when you think it can’t get any worse…
Please do reflect on this.
Red earthenware, underglazes, glaze, acrylics
Dimensions: 37” x 18” x 13”
The idea of strength is expressed in so many forms, physical, mental, emotional, and there has always been the polarity of male vs. female strength. Actions stemming from strength have varying consequences depending on what interpretation of strength we choose to act from.
Strength is never merely power, it is so much more. Strength is about balance, about the ying and the yang, not about subjugation and oppression, and not about demeaning others so that “we” can feel stronger. That is what this piece is all about. (And then some)
Earthenware, plywood, acrylics
Dimensions: 13 ½” x 31” x 8”
I have grown tired of words, blaring at us from pages, virtual and otherwise, being perpetually re-interpreted as to what they “really mean”, being misemployed to the point that we can not understand one another anymore because the same word means very different things to different people.
The physical wall promising to keep “them” out has not yet been built, but the wall of words is firmly entrenched in our daily discourse. Do you ever reflect on what image your mind creates when you hear “they” or “us”? Is one or the other of greater importance to you? Where do you fit in when “I” is made to choose sides? What do the “big, beautiful” words really mean that have been drilled into you since the day you were born all red, white and blue?
white earthenware, underglaze, weathered steel, gilded pennies
Dimension: 19" x 16" x71/2"
The rather crude German colloquial expression "Dukatenscheisser" is used to describe a self-centered, obviously filthy rich blowhard, lacking any empathy for those different than he.
Here is my Americanized version of the money pooper, with his tiny hands, and yellow cat atop his head where his hair should be.
(Sold)
With these pieces I really embraced the figurative narrative on low fire earthenware. They are about sibling relationships, humor, and attributes we collect over our lifetimes.
Photography by Scuderi Studios, St.Petersburg, FL.
Earthenware, slips and underglazes, fired
approx. 20"w x 17"h x 5"d
earthenware, colored slips, underglazes
White earthenware with slip and underglaze
White earthenware, colored slip and underglazes.
Can be sold individually or as a group.
earthenware, slips, underglazes
approx. 15"h x 5"d x 7"w
earthenware, colored slips, underglazes
approx. 15"h x 6"d x 8"w
earthenware, colored slips, underglazes
approx. 15"h x 5"d x 5"w
earthenware, colored slips, underglazes. wax
approx. 19"h x 6"d x 6"w
earthenware, colored slips, underglazes, wax
approx. 16"h x 6"d x 6"w
earthenware, colored slips, underglazes, wax
approx. 15"h x 5"d x 5"w
Lowfire red earthenware decorated with colored slips and underglazes.
Approximately 28" tall by 7" x5"
This piece was inspired by a trip through central Florida at the height of summer when we still had ample orange groves, and when I discovered that Florida is one of the largest dairy producing states in the US.
Lowfire red earthenware decorated with colored slips and underglazes.
Approximately 28" tall by 7" x5"
Lowfire red earthenware decorated with colored slips and underglazes.
Approximately 28" tall by 7" x5"
With this piece I want to focus on the idea that we generally tend to simply look at the surface of things. We enjoy the surface of our vast bodies of water, and we use them for our purposes without much thought of the enormous world below which in turn impacts our lives above.
Lowfire red earthenware decorated with colored slips and underglazes.
Approximately 28" tall by 7" x5"
Lowfire red earthenware decorated with colored slips and underglazes.
Approximately 28" tall by 7" x5"
This piece was inspired by the rugged atlantic coast of Portugal and its history of seafaring
Lowfire red earthenware decorated with colored slips and underglazes.
Approximately 28" tall by 7" x5"
Lowfire red earthenware, slab built, decorated with colored slips and underglazes.
Approximately 28" tall by 7" x5"
It may not be obvious, but New Mexico was what inspired me to do this piece.
Lowfire red earthenware, slab built, decorated with colored slips and underglazes.
Approximately 28" tall by 7" x5"
SOLD
Slab built stoneware, glazed, reduction fired
SOLD
The piece I made in 2014 for my sister’s excellent neurosurgeon who basically saved her life.
earthenware mask
Hanging ceramic sculpture, (2 pieces)
White earthenware, underglazes, acrylic, wire
Photos by Brian James
The Snooty series - the large pieces are approximately 30 inches tall, 24 inches wide, and between 6 and 10 inches deep. They are hand built from stoneware slabs, bisque fired, then glazed and finally fired in a reduction atmosphere to approximately 2360 degrees Fahrenheit for the stoneware pieces. The earthenware pieces were finished with underglazes and slips and low fired in an electric kiln.
I had a lot of fun working on this series over a period of time. It was a nice change to create a more stylized interpretation of a human figure and thereby exaggerating or emphazising individuality. There was so much oppportunity for designing different versions, making various sizes, embuing each with their very own attributes and characteristics.
Each piece approximately 33" tall x10" x6"
Red earthenware, slab built, decorated with slip and underglaze, partially glazed.
Approximately 33" tall x 15" x7"
Lowfire red earthenware, slip and underglaze decorated
Approximately 33" tall x10" x6"
Red earthenware, slab built, decorated with slip and underglaze, partially glazed.
Approximately 30" tall x15" x7 1/2"
Lowfire red earthenware, built from slabs and decorated with colored slips. The stem of the spear is wood.
SOLD
SOLD
SOLD (to a loving home)
SOLD
Reduction fired to Cone 10; stone ware with black slip
