artist statement
With the advent of modern machinery and production methods there has been an overall loss of the human laborer. Modern machinery has revolutionized our methods of construction and humans ability to control raw materials but has diminished mans physical interaction and manipulation of these materials.
Ceramics has typically been viewed as a hands-on art form with the artist sculpting and manipulating the clay into a desired from. In contrast, ceramics has recently been incorporated into many advanced technological applications. With its recent merging in the industrial field and newly discovered uses, combined with the advancements in its technical applications, ceramics as an art form is changing.
My work celebrates this change by juxtaposing fictional as well as functional factory produced objects and machines with the art of ceramics. Each piece incorporates traditional hand built methods of ceramic construction which reconnects these typically mass produced objects with the human. My interest is in creating dynamic pieces that utilize multiple construction techniques including: wheel thrown, slab, coil, molded, and extruded parts. By combining these multiple construction techniques, the viewer gains an appreciation of the technical capabilities of clay. Whereas the complete set of pieces attest to my own responses to industrial objects and machinery, celebrating humans' creativity and ingenuity.