Cone Form

The piece photographed, Cone Form, represents my ongoing exploration of ceramic materiality and the activity of process as it relates a human condition - a technical, metaphorical and personally reflective investigation.  This piece was exhibited and received honorable mention in Mino, and its image was later published on the cover of 500 Ceramic Sculptures, published by Lark Books, edited by Dr. Glen Brown, together with other selected works from this series.

Like other works in this ongoing series, it draws upon the funnel, or cone form.  The cone is a form found in various forms of physiology; they have also been appropriated to describe geometric principles and to gather material, direct it, and channel it into smaller openings, i.e. the funnel.  Inverted, the funnel opens unknown possibilities. I use the form to allude to both natural and man-made information, for directing us to the known and concurrently opening to the unknown.  

Central to my art making is the exploration of materiality and the activity of process as it relates a human condition.  Setting up a systematic framework into grid-like structures focuses my inquiry in a manner that embraces my concerns, thus allowing content and associations to be inserted and the unforeseen revealed.  Inherent are intersecting layers of abstract associative meanings, time, growth, decay, physical states of matter, expansion, contraction and scale; engaging work walks a line between these associations.  I allude to images of architecture and models of physiology and geology.  There is an exchange of information that occurs when ceramic is fired.   Pyro-plastic transformation of the work in a kiln is out of my sight and immediate control.  These fantastic material changes offer new pieces of vital information.