Stinky Cheese Ceramics
That river mud between your toes has taken an epic journey of transformation through geologic time, and it will speed through another one in your kiln in the blink of an eye.
I’m fascinated by rocks, history, and process, but most of all, I’m obsessed with clay. I hunt for and harvest wild clays and minerals from locations that are meaningful to me, and hand-process them for use in my studio practice.
I enjoy getting to know the characteristics of each clay I collect – connecting with it personally, intimately, in the present, and also through geologic time, connecting with the vast history of this place. I now have something in common with the glaciers that were here thousands of years ago, or even with the dinosaurs that were here millions of years ago! The story of Earth is told in layers, and I study these archives to learn the language of geology, to find my place within its pages.
Our urge to manipulate and control our environment mirrors our relationships with each other and with ourselves. I create comical scenes of near-reality that reference our daily lives and highlight the absurdities of our relationships. Through sculpted form or textured and illustrated surfaces, I employ environmental imagery to express the human experience: the internal as well as the external.
We ironically relate to our natural environment by striving to control it – we line avenues with trees pruned into ridiculous shapes around the powerlines. We might as well have the garbage trucks deliver our Amazon packages straight into our trash cans.
When it comes to our inner relationships, I can often relate to the sad cloud, all serious and concerned in my own rainy bubble, oblivious to the rainbows all around. I crack myself up when I see this grumpy little guy float by – and everything is better when I can laugh at myself a little bit. Then maybe I can make a change, or lighten up, or save the world, or just get out of bed.
I make pottery because it brings intention to our shared human experience across all generations:
between the maker, the beholder, and all the potters and beholders-of-pots that ever have been and ever will be. I’m amused by that simultaneous embodiment of both the existentially profound and the functionally mundane. Pottery is part of the grand conversation, and it holds your coffee, too.
Location Notes: Studio is located one block south of 1st St, where North Garfield ends. Access is from SW 2nd St, via RR Ave – on the WEST SIDE of tracks – it’s a “No Outlet” street.
