2012: Regarding Slab Waltz

The Director of UMaine Museum of Art, George Kinghorn, requested for the Zillman Gallery in April 2012, wall-based work plus the free-standing work that I've been making for over a decade. This request was a catalyst for a change in direction. I purchased a slabroller, then started making 15” tiles and mounting bisected thrown vessels on to them.

My new work for the UMA has a lot to do with framing, which is normally not possible when making free-standing work. I'm using three different clays for the first time, two red stonewares, one with grog and one white stoneware. I've been using red and white slip that I make from these clays, too. What's the same about my practice is the altering, adapting and augmenting that I do. What's new is the dancing between the wheel and the slabroller, hence the title ‘Slab Waltz’.

I am driven to build my work by a strong instinct to make physical some of my many sculptural ideas. Some of the ideas are points that have been raised in the Adult Ed pottery classes that I teach. The art historical references that I notice emanating from the work are from the Italian pastel painter of bottles and jars, Giorgio Morandi and the great contemporary American ceramicist Betty Woodman.

My biggest problems have been a lack of space for slowly drying the various components of the sculptures before scoring then attaching them, as well as the pieces being extremely fragile whilst they are still green (i.e., before they are fired in the kiln). If I get stuck for an idea, which happens rarely, I cast my eyes around my studio and my gallery, see a former motif and reuse it in a different way, for example the slight curl I give to the rim of a few of the bisected vases.

Director George Kinghorn asked me about some of the ‘finials’ on top of some of my earlier work. I think they come from architecture but also, as with work titled ‘Shrines to Pottery’ and ‘Ode to Pottery’, I'm questioning the status of pottery in the hierarchy of fine art and craft. I'm trying to elevate my work to sculpture by adding a miniature version of a vessel on the knob of the lid on a jar. By making the finial a miniature pot I'm literally raising my potterys' status in the hierarchy of the arts, to sculpture. Is a functional pot's status raised when it is bisected and made into a tile whereby rendering the function ‘useless’?