Artist Statement

2008

Rock and roll old school.

I was recently at an alternative art space opening with a group of friends and a student looked at us and said, “Rock and roll old school.” At first I was offended but then realized he was right. When I went to school cone 10 clay was king. Functional thrown utilitarian objects were the flavor of the day. We didn’t have computers, cell phones, or iPods.

Now anything is possible in the clay world from content to temperature. There are so many ways to work that I myself set rules to work within so I don’t get lost in the possibilities. Clay body, glazes, kilns are all things that I have formulated or built. It gives me a fleeting sense of control and sets the parameters for me to work. The best part for me being a ceramic sculptor is working with the clay making the forms. I barrel through 18,000 pounds of clay a year. I make work for 3 months then fire it all in one kiln load. The rest of the sculpture making process goes downhill for me as far as pleasure. Loading the kiln, glazing, and finishing the work on bases are all things that need to be done so I can continue my addiction with clay.

Then the marketing and selling of the work have to be considered. Those are not high on my list for favorite thing but are a necessary evil.

The economy is down and people are concerned with their 401k plans. Art is not on the average person’s mind when they are worried about paying the mortgage. So I am looking for the not so average, people who want art either for an investment or as an enhancement for quality of life.

I work with 16 or so galleries around the country that hopefully have access to this ideal art collector. Throughout the year I average 6 one or two person shows. This keeps me in a constant state of trying to reinvent myself, to come up with new work. People don’t want to see the same thing year after year. I find myself revisiting themes in my work, hopefully with a different point of view. After working with clay for over 20 years my options of something new become smaller. A Zen saying goes, “A beginner has many possibilities and an expert has few.” I have been teaching workshops on creativity and the golden mean trying to help other people and myself make inner connections for personalized work. One of the class assignments is to go out with digital or disposable camera and take pictures of objects that resonate for each individual, objects of interest. Then I have the student combine 3 of these pictures into one using the golden mean proportion that will later be translated into clay. Rorschach ink blots and guided meditation are also experimented with to find inspiration. For myself I like to read books outside of the art field for inspiration. Quantum physics, psychology string theory, shamanism, Kama sutra are examples of some of my interests. Then I try and figure out how conceptual ideas can be translated into clay form. I also have a small group of friends that I can bounce ideas off of, meeting once a month for a show and tell of what’s new that each one of us has been working on. But it mostly comes down to going into the studio everyday and trying to figure out what I can do that is new but won’t be too weird or different from my previous work so that I will lose my collectors.

Maybe that is what it means to be old school, stuck in a style that is recognized as mine and being financially fearful of branching out.

The one advertising class I took in college droned on about name recognition and I realized that that is a way to get work out into the market place and try to elevate prices. For each show that I do the gallery provides a press release of my artist statement and photos to the local papers that sometimes lead into featured stories. I also split ads with the galleries in national art magazines, like Ceramic Monthly and Art News. I Try to attract attention for a specific piece and get my name out there.

The art market and collectors are a strange and wonderfully confusing entry into the human psyche. What is hot and collectable and what are the art trends? New and novel work gets written about but I wonder if the artist’s work is sustainable or just a one hit wonder. Looking at an artist like Jeff Koons, I realize there is more to the art marketing of work. Koons approached his work as a commodity, having collectors buy his work as an investment for a profit that can be had in the future. One way he accomplished this was to have collectors bid up the prices of his work at auction houses, thus raising the prices of the work that they previously owned.

Being a ceramic sculptor, the physical aspect of working large becomes an issue. The older I get the larger and heavier the work seams to get. I keep threatening to become a jeweler when I grow up. Until that happens, I go to the gym 3 days a week for an hour of weight training followed by an hour of aerobics. I try to maintain my strength so I can move the work around. When I do a show I drive a body of work with my van that can hold 2 tons. Unloading and placing the work can get physical, especially if stairs are involved. I find myself shying away from shows if I have to walk the work up stairs. I imagine someday I might have to hire assistance or get a fork lift to move the work around, but until then I think of it as a free work out.

I may be rock and roll old school. I just hope I have a few new licks to be relevant in the future.

Artist Statement 2006

A visual language made whole.

Communicating real life events,
Whether physical or mental.

A way to understand the world we live in
Communicating in a non verbal, visual way. Focusing our senses and emotions

Emotions displayed whole.
Solid and real.

Markers of a point in time
Never to be repeated.

Exposed in its nakedness
Yet covered in content

Not taking the safe road
Just traveling by self imposed direction

Enjoying the physical aspects of creating
Making the intangible concrete

Trying to make one’s way
Sometimes frightened of the future.

Putting up walls
Allowing only the pleasant aspects

Not always succeeding
Facing away from the dark.

Judge and jury of others
Dreading the responsibility.

Insignificant specks in the cosmic dust.
Standing up and saying I am important too.

Believing that heaven and hell is here and now. It’s all about perspective.

Leaving something behind,
A fear of not experiencing it before the end.

Opening up new thoughts and feelings,
Setting up situations to expand one’s self.

Trying to know where I am going.
Forgetting it’s the journey that is important.

A ripple in a still pond caused from a single drop of rain.

Artist statement. 2005

This seems to be the year of looking at other peoples work. I have been asked to jury several shows and look at grad student’s work- as if I know the answer to what makes a good piece of art.

What am I looking for?

Art from the Latin root ar to join Greek ariunein to arrange

1. The disposition or modification of things by human skill, to answer the purpose intended.
      2. An esthetically pleasing and meaningful arrangement of elements.

Craft
1. Some special art or skill dexterity in a particular manual occupation,
      Manual art.
2. A skill or proficiency
(Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1983)

I am looking for Visual Speed Bumps--images that slow me down to take a closer look. Work that allows me in without explaining everything at first glance. I am looking for the vocabulary of the visual--technique, symbols, visual tricks, elements to communicate thoughts or feelings.

We are products of our past memories and experiences. Telling an individual story with each person. I like to think of displaying artwork as sending up flags of individual tribes. Attracting like-minded people to the work. Relating a personal statement that resonates with others. A signpost of where we are at that point in time.

I am looking for work that takes risk. Explores new ideas. Exposing the soul of the artist. Feeling the vibration resonating from the mind and soul.

Music and Visual art

The different sounds of music, (rock, jazz, hip hop, classical…) Relate to the different visual styles. I wonder if the music an artist listens to affects what they make?

Music is a big part of my creative process, I listen to sound scapes, background to feelings that I am creating. Music that takes me places in a long journey of sound. I still feel that vibrations from the music can become part of the visual piece. If I am listening to hard rock with dissonant tones the piece that I am working on resembles the sound.   Tribal beats creates archetypal forms. Classical music creates safe forms.

In an ideal situation the music that I listen to while creating the work should be played with the final piece.

11/27/2004

I Believe in Kiln Gods

It is the last thing I do before I light the Kiln

Molding a form with clay, entrusting it to protect the work within.

It is like giving yourself up to the universe

The kiln god signifies that I am open to the possible

Already I have done everything to the extent of my knowledge in the pursuit of a vision.

Aware of the unexpected, making room for the possible

Divine intervention

I assume responsibility for the things that I know.

The rest is why I get up in the morning.

Excitement in the new and unexpected.

It doesn’t have anything to do with the divine spirit but with the possibility that one exists.

Artist statement 2003

For me art is about communicating with other people. Reaching out in a visual way and putting it out there.

Artist Matthew Sawyer bought a Granny Smith apple from the same fruit vender every day. Finally the fruit vender anticipated Matthew's request and said, One Granny, isn't it? This is what's Matthew's project was about. Being recognized in a sea of humanity.

Going up to a stranger and hearing their story. For everyone has a story.

Personal Job Description

Willing to take risks
Courageous in the new
Able to sustain oneself on few rewards
Able to work alone for long periods of time
Plays well with others when he has to
Must be able to look inward to create outward
Abstain from being mainstream
Pathfinder
Must work with sales and distribution
Creating work that is interesting to the creator
Always working on improvement
Asking questions
Travel the road less traveled for it won't be crowded when you get there
Trying not to have people influence your work for it should be about you
Be ready to have your best work rejected and your worst work accepted

Artist Statement 2002

It’s about early morning coffee.

Asking the big question Why?

The infinite of Possibilities

And the limiting factor of the inner critic

Mirroring what is going on around me in a twisted vision.

Perceptions tied in a knot then heated to the melting point

Trying to make a piece that holds my interest first, then the view.

The pieces have to have a sense of mystery to them, each day revealing more of itself.

There also has to be connectiveness from the past to the present.

Entangling our history with the future.

Interconnectiveness of all things.

Opening up to the possibilities

Artist Statement 2001

01/21/2001

Bits and pieces, the stuff that sticks

...I don't live my life in a vacuum.

Though at times I think it would be easier to live in a vacuum.

Life would be dull and boring.

I share the planet with other people.

By experiencing other people I take parts of their encounter and take it into me.

This is not a conscious effort, I can't distill it down to only one experience.

It is random and surprising in what is acquired.

An accumulation of parts of other peoples' thoughts, actions, feelings that stick to me.

What comes of this experience is a constant evolution in my own identity of self.

A metamorphosis with each encounter.

In this series of work I try to visualize this experience.

Artist Statement 2000

My work is about traveling in the Dream world.

The place that exists between wakefulness and sleep.

Betwixt and Between.

I am interested in conscious thoughts and the space between thoughts.

My work allows me to get to these spots.

I try to make the pieces that are timeless yet contemporary. As if the sculpture was dug up from a civilization yet to exist.

It is about relationships and travel.

A directed dream, occurring in the fast lane.

Artist Statement 1999

MY PORTRAIT IN THE SNOW

Making art for me is like creating my portrait in the snow on a cold winters day

To send a stream of energy arching in the freezing air is an act of rebellion, and act of freedom. This is what art is to me is about.

Worrying about social taboos and dismissing them.

It is a necessary act for my survival, but is best done in private.

It's a totally natural process that can't be forced. For things don't work right when I try to hard.

The only limits are what my body physically can do and what my imagination will allow.

There are no thoughts, only of the act of doing. For if my mind wonders I usually make a mess.

The release of energy and the expulsion of warmth are a few of the sensations flowing through me while maintaining visual ideas.

Is it the act of doing that make's the idea ? Or the idea that makes the act ?

It is a fleeting moment to let go, dissolving, becoming part of the larger picture. Knowing you will be there next time.

Realizing in time, after the sun shines, and the wind blows the creative act will be erased forever.

Artist Statement 1998

I am interested in things that vibrate at the same frequency as I am. Certain music, tribal, primal beats help resonate my being hopefully to a higher level.

Music more than any other sense stimulates my subconscious. It open doors to other realms, where smell triggers past memories.

Are we a product of our past memories and experiences in what we call real time or can the human mind transcend time and recall images not of this body? Jung wrote about archetype images that go beyond culture and time and Krishnamurti wrote that there are no new ideas, only rehashing of the old experience to form new ones.

Confused again in the search for the unknown.

Tai chi resonates my body and mind to a frequency that I enjoy. It feels as if I draw energy from the movement and music. Taking in the vibrations.

Everything is vibrating itself to existence. That is why I am drawn to certain objects. Subconsciously my body and mind are attracted, when my conscious mind is open.

I try to make resonating pieces, that are left as signposts or markers to avibration that I have felt in my life journey.

I believe you can put energy into a piece of art that can be felt by others.

I am trying to make the interconnective vibration that connects everything together. A Morphogenit wave.

I am defining the borders of my perception. The viewpoint on which I look at the world, trying to see through open eyes. Eliminating social programming on how to view my surrounding, a deletion of preconceived ideas of what is around me. It would be like opening my senses for the first time and experiencing the world fresh without judgment .

Artist Statement 1997

I always wanted one

That is the driving force for why I work.

I want to bring the dream world into the material one.

I want to see it exist.

I want to be inspired after I make a piece so I can make the next one.

I want to think new thoughts and to go to places I’ve never been before.

I want to have enough money so I can continue to make art.

I want to see the circles I live in.

I want to make the act of creating an introspective and selfish affair.

I want to enjoy what I do.

I want it to last forever.