Clay and Glaze with Dot Method

Creation is a conversation. Once pen sets to paper, brush to canvas, or the first bits of clay are formed one must listen to what these new shapes in reality have to say. It is a fervent and whispered discussion with our souls filtered through the prisms of informed experience and sought knowledge. One can not just force his or her idea into being for we must diligently react to what is developing before us. You may carefully lay the steps of success and succession orderly beneath the feet of a child but with this child's first step the pave stones of parental guidance must be shifted and continuously realigned to assist the tiny human. The nature and placement of these steps of assistance become an operation of cooperation and the parent must trust to the intuition and direction of the child. An art work is the same. As the creation develops it leads me to paths I had not nor should not have conceived. If I forge on with deaf ear I dampen its possibilities. It is the ability to communicate with and relate to the growth of ones creation which maximizes the outcomes. It is why I view all of my works as my children. And why would anyone want to have a child and not listen to him?

My Harry Potter pot originally began as a Hermione pot. I had failed to realize that I could not just simply shape the features of the girl onto a head with such generalized form. My Hermione pot became more of a Greek like head and my clay began to whisper the idea of a Medusa to me. This coil pot developed from the bottom up and once I reached the eyes my creation spoke of Harry Potter to me and I listened. I am reminded of the art Mary GrandPre' created for the books, my favorite books by the way. I sometimes wonder what sort of boy J.K. Rowling envisions when Harry Potter whispers in her mind.

The lid is Tom Riddle and symbolizes not only their psychic connection but the influence he had over the direction of Harry Potter's life. Without Voldemort there would be no boy who lived. We all have these influences and shapings of our lives, some positive, some not. But we must listen to these whisperings that guide us and we must create and live with them and not against them. And after all, who does not have a little bit of Voldemort inside?

When I went back to Art School I was already showing and selling paintings in small galleries and other public venues. I really did not feel the need nor desire to have anyone commenting or instructing me on what or how to paint, so I decided to study ceramic sculpture and explore the three dimensional aspects of my creativity.

I was very surprised to find that a hierarchy existed within the school whereas certain mediums were given precedence over others. The art school caste system consisted of these following layers (in order of silently agreed upon importance): Sculpture, Painting, Drawing, Photography and Printmaking probably tied, ceramics, and then the lowly fiber arts. I always considered art to be art, whether scribbled in someone's sketchbook or tattooed an someone's ass. I like the more permanent mediums myself but I suppose that relates to far more philosophical underpinnings within myself rather than aesthetic reasons.

But I was more surprised by the art school edict that art could not be functional. The media hierarchy made more sense when viewed through this prism. I could see how one's idea of functionality could force ceramics and fibers to the bottom of the caste. But art does serve a function. If a person hangs a painting in a particular place it is always for a very specific reason, to beautify a certain room or provoke thought and or invoke memory or emotion. There is no such thing as a non functional art work or anything else for that matter.

As for ceramics, professors might say that if you use a bowl for eating it as transferred into functionality and out of art. What about a pretty Chinese rice bowl? Is it art? How about if it is a pretty Chinese rice bowl that is thirteen hundred years old and now sits on a shelf in a museum to be viewed by thousands of viewers each year; art? How about a cereal bowl you watched your father eat breakfast out of for the majority of your life which you now keep in a special spot of your cupboard and think about your father and his love when you fill it with Lucky Charms occasionally? Is this common clay bowl an object art? My Gandalf pot is more vase than pot. And even though I never put anything in it I could easily put flowers within it. Does this nullify its existence as an object of art? What if I told you that this image of Gandalf, relating to his fall into the flames of Moria and subsequent arising, represents the ideas of rebirth, reincarnation, resurrection, and reinvention and evolution which are so very important to me in my life?

I need to get a flower to put in his head.

Clay and Glaze with Dot Method

Clay and Glaze

Clay and Glaze

Clay and Glaze

Clay and Glaze

Contrast is, perhaps, the strongest element in any art. What is the whitest of the whites without the blackest of the blacks to define them? Light and dark so carefully juxtaposed against one another is that which draws us into the depths of a work of art. Contrast fools our sense of the two-dimensionality and tricks us into believing a painting or drawing to be part of our own space and indeed part of our own reality.

In literature and film there can be no protagonist without the antagonist as balance. The best heroes are only best because of their contrast with the wonderful villains who oppose them. Severus Snape was the impetus that sent Tom Riddle hurtling towards James and Lilly Potter and is just as responsible for the future of Harry as anyone. Severus's hatred of his old school tormenter who would marry the girl of his dreams would almost seem to justify his disdain of the boy who lived. Of course Severus in the end was not truly bad at all. He was the most faithful servant of Albus Dumbledore who did everything that was asked of him and Harry Potter called him "the bravest man I ever knew." Fortunately we do not know this until the end when he looks upon the eyes of Lilly Potter one tragic last time. Voldemort may have been the blackest of the blacks of the Harry Potter series but it was Snape who provided my chapterly fulfillment of contrast.

No one could have portrayed Severus Snape better than Alan Rickman. It takes quite a talent indeed to illustrate so much depth with so few words. I used Mr. Rickman's face for my pot because of this.

Clay

This vessel holds and burns stick incense. The smoke pours out of the faces mouth and the mouth of a skull on the opposing side. It represents the duality of life and death and blurring of those lines.

Oil and Glaze Dot Method

The clay vessel is, overall, roughly the shape of a heart. The geometric forms atop represent the troubles of my heart. Before the form was closed I placed five small clay spheres inside to represent the number of times I have been in love. When I shake the heart the spheres move around ripping off little pieces from my heart.

Clay and Glaze

White Clay

Clay and Glaze

Nails, Wax Apples, and Paint Through and on Particle Board

Clay and Glaze with Dot Method

White clay fired in the Raku method with chemical throw.

1994

Metal and Wood

1993

Inside my Piggy Bank I keep a little Lego bearded blue wizard and a reproduction antique Roman coin with Cleopatra on one side and Marcus Antonius on the other.

Clay and Glaze

Clay and Glaze

1999

For this coil pot I used underglaze as the base coat and then used gloss glaze to make the individual dots on top. Because underglaze lacks silica the dots did not melt and absorb into the base coat and thus remained three dimersional. Just like me:)

Clay and Glaze

Clay and Glaze Dot Method

Clay, Glaze, and Clay Dust

This is my multi-dimensional dartboard. It is made from birch wood, cork, metal, and paint. I threw a dart at it just once.

Amenhotep IV was a Pharaoh from the 18th Dynasty in Egypt and ruled in the 14th century BCE. During the fifth year of his reign Amenhotep changed his name to Akhenaten in reference to Aten or Ra the Sun God. He shifted the religious policies of his reign towards a more quasi monotheistic worship of Aten and began construction of temples in Amarna in the new city of Akhetaten devoted to the worship of the sun. Akhenaten’s religious policies were rejected after his death and much of what remained was destroyed or defaced. He was the husband of Nefertiti and might have been the father of Tutankhamun or King Tut as he is known today. Portrait busts of Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti reside in the Neues Museum in Berlin. While hers is one of the most magnificent statues from antiquity and remains in near pristine condition; his has been been deface and smashed and only hints at the sate of its original beauty.

White Clay Fired in the Raku Method withChemical Throw

Clay and Glaze

After my Grandfather died I found two old drawers in his garage which he had labeled with a piece of masking tape “Old Empty Boxes.” I made this one into a low maintenance feline.

Acrylic, Wood and Castors

My second sculpture made from two old drawers found in my Grandfather’s garage which he had labeled “Old Empty Boxes.” Besides the castors, all of the items used were found including the silver elephant hash pipe I discovered laying in the grass on the edge of a park. Like my cat sculpture, I also prefer friends who have hash pipes for noses.

Drawer and Found Objects

1999

Clay and Glaze with Dot Method

Acrylic and Oil Paint on Clay and Wood

Acrylic and Oil Paint on Clay and Wood

Acrylic and Oil Paint on Clay and Wood

These are unfinished dolls I made of two of my favorite artists Pablo Picasso and Frida Kahlo. The heads, feet, Pablo’s hands, and Frida’s Torso are made from painted paper clay with cloth stuffed legs and other body parts. Frida’s arms are made in a cubist like style as a reference to her partner Diego Rivera. The ankles for both were made from wine corks.

A curve or geometric figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole. Fractals are useful in modeling structures (such as eroded coastlines or snowflakes) in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales, and in describing partly random or chaotic phenomena such as crystal growth, fluid turbulence, and galaxy formation.

Acrylic on Canvas on Birch

Acrylic on Canvas on Birch

Acrylic on Canvas on Birch

I was living in New Orleans and from the angle upon which I was laying on my couch I could see a face in one corner of the ceiling. Leonardo Da Vinci had written about how an artist should always be aware of faces and objects one might see in stains or soap scum or any random spills around us. But from any other angle besides that precise one, I could not see the face in the ceiling stain. It was hidden from me from any other vantage point besides my particular place on the couch. I began at that point to become consumed with the understanding and depiction of the dimensions hidden from us in our fabric of reality.

Within the consideration of physical space there are essentially two different and seemingly opposite realms. There are the common and comprehensible four dimensions we all know so very well. The big and beautiful dimensions of donuts, Jupiter, and Dolly Parton and the elusive dimension of time which we either relish or despise. Einstein eloquently weaved these classic four into his beautiful theory of general relativity describing the curves and undulations of space and time. That is the big and then there is the physics of the unbelievably tiny: quantum mechanics. The mathematics of these inscrutable notations predict the existence of seven, eight, or even an infinite number of extra dimensions; hidden dimensions, secret and small and separated from our existence in entirety, but nonetheless an essential part of the fabric of space and time.A possible infinity of dimensions which define our reality as much as Einstein, donuts, and the yellow star we orbit.

In many physics books other dimensions are often described with this analogy: You see a line in the distance. But as you approach it you begin to realize, that no, it was not just a line but a long skinny hollow tube, much like a garden hose. And upon closer and further examination you realize that there are ants climbing along both the inside and outside of the long skinny tube; the one you mistook to be only a one dimensional line just moments before. Physics books will use this to show how this ant lined garden hose is in a dimension hidden from view. But I find fault with this description. What they are describing is just something too far away for us to see properly. If I was on a space station high up in orbit and looked down upon Asia I would not see any Chinese people at all. This does not mean that all the Chinese people are in a different dimension, they are just too far away or small for me to see. I began to believe that just because a scientist can predict that a hidden dimension can exist does not necessarily mean they can accurately depict what one would be like.

My intense desire to comprehend the physical nature of space and my love and passion for art began to coalesce. Picasso and Braque's cubism incorporates ideas of Einstein's relativity  into art and altered the landscape of western art forever. But how would an artist incorporate the idea of hidden dimensions. I began with corner paintings. From the frontal view a face is in proportion. This angle to me represents the three common dimensions with which we are all so familiar. But get close to the painting, move about it and examine it from various angles and the picture changes. From below the face is happy, from above sad, warped side to side; an infinite variety of paintings exist, hidden at first from view. For me these are the equivalent of the dimensions hidden from our reality that quantum mechanics predict. Perhaps the other dimensions are not simply just too far away or small for us to perceive. Perhaps we just need a different way to look to find them.

Popeye represents my furthest exploration of incorporating the representation of extra dimensions into art. From no angle is the image the same. An infinite variety of works exist within what at first professes to be nothing more than an image of the sailor. I yam what I yam...not quite.

This figure was loosely based on early works of Picasso.

Clay

White Clay Fired in the Raku Method with Chemical Throw

Acrylic on Wood

This was the neck locking mechanism for a sculpture I made of a small functional guillotine with a very sharp metal blade. I cut potatoes and other vegetables for the demonstration, no babies:)

Acrylic and Varnish on Wood

In High School I believed I was being very clever by making a pipe disguised as a rotting banana. Not too clever when I sucked a teaspoon of dust into my lungs after pulling it out of the kiln after the bisque firing. I couldn’t breath for several minutes as I coughed out fine particulate clay matter. I nearly died. Also I have no idea why I chose to use a Del Monte sticker rather than Dole one.

Clay, Glaze, and Sticker

Little clay face I made where his lid could be taken off and his brains removed.

Clay and Stain

I found a red handled broom set out for the trash in front of my apartment. I can’t explain why someone would throw away a still functional sweeping device or why I would paint a screaming face upon it.

Acrylic on Broom

1997

I’m not even going to begin to attempt to speculate the meaning behind this sculpture which i made for a college course over 25 years ago, probably something metaphysical:)

Plaster and Paint

Clay and Underglaze

I made this pot from clay I dug out the ground and purified myself. HIs right leg broke and I was forced to repair it with materials I dug out of my basement.

Clay and Colored Clay Underglazes

I made this out of craft popsicle sticks I found in a cabinet. When I was in Paris I was immediately struck by the color of the Eiffel Tower. When I was there it was painted a deep rust color and only appeared to be black from a distance with the tower against the sky.

Wood

Clay and Glaze

Sully from Monsters Inc. and me in my often current state of mind and affairs.

Clay and Glaze

Clay

Clay Fired with Raku Method with Chemical Throw

Mardi Gras beads caught by me in a Hurricane induced frenzy.

Cheap Plastic Beads

1991

Cut Mirror Pieces and Birch

Clay and Glaze

Narasimha is an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, one who incarnates in the form of part lion and part man to destroy evil and end religious persecution and calamity on Earth, thereby restoring Dharma. I turned an old stool into a posable representation of this religious figure I had read about. Unfortunately my intoxicated friend Eddie chose to sit upon it when it was posed on all fours resembling a chair. The head is all I have left.

Wooden Stool, Paint, Wing nuts and Bolts

Clay and Glaze

Jesus of Nazareth preached about love, tolerance, and argued for a radical new approach to the mores of the day. His was a “new” paradigm and a condemnation of the material wealth that had integrated, ultimately absorbed, and over rid the religion he was born into. His was a New Testament. In todays society I am dismayed to witness so many quoting from the “old” testament to justify bigotry, misogyny, war, punishment, retaliation, and the pursuit of material wealth which all were an affront to the actual teachings of Jesus. My sculpture, modeled after a Jack in the Box, shows how Jesus blew apart the church to introduce a “New” spirituality; one based upon love first, tolerance above all, and the repudiation of wealth in society.

When I first showed this piece in a critique the sculpture was close with the yellow wooden cross holding the spring body in the closed box. I then said the “this is the church and this is the steeple and had a fellow student pull the cross out. When the figure of Jesus violently sprung from the box she screamed and I could not have been more pleased:)

Wood, Paint, Springs, Paper Mache, and Hands from a Homer Simpson Doll

Clay

Clay and Glaze

Clay and Glaze

Rickety Chair and Paint

Unfinished Sculpture of my model Sarah.

Clay and Wood

Clay, Glaze, and Clay Dust

This is the first time I ever used plaster. I made the substructure from scraps found around my apartment (cardboard, bottles, even old sponges) and then covered the work with wet plaster using a large rough brush. I never thought it was very good but one night, when my friend Marty was staying with me, someone was trying to break into my apartment from the downstairs. Like many areas in New Orleans, the door was protected by a metal gate so it was unlikely the intruder would get in but they were doing their best to kick the door down through the gate. This was a shady part of town and being awoken from a dead sleep was enough to freak out both of us. Marty assumed I had a gun since I was in the military but since I did not we began to look for things to throw onto the intruder as they came up the stairs. It was not until Marty picked up this plaster head as a potential projectile that I suddenly became rational and clamly asked him to put my art down. We called the police but they never bothered to get out of their car to check on us. I had told 911 that the apartment was in the back of the building, but again, it was a shady part of town.