Wall Plates

When I was an art student in New Mexico I  fortuitously found a job working as a studio assistant for production Potter,  Janet Hoelzel,  I learned a lot from working with Janet and a few things stick in my mind... one was a bumper sticker that she had on her car and the message was "Stamp Out perfectionism" I really like this message and I apply it to much of my work. I also gained an appreciation for low fire ceramics.   In art school there was an underlying disregard for low fire clay works in favor of high fire ceramics. It was a sort of hierarchy,  at least that's how it seemed to my mind; that somehow Low Fire works were on a lower strata than high fire works. I had been willing to abide by, and maybe even agree with the hierarchy, that is, until I met Janet.  In addition to our regular production work,  we taught Pottery to grade school children after school.  It was one of these lessons that spurred this series.  The work of children has a bold freshness and spontaneity that is rooted in the moment.  It is their fun, non-formulaic roughness I strive for. The themes in my plates stem from the everyday.  I am primarily interested in the quotidian.  I am fascinated by the extraordinary unknowable-ness of the everyday -  the things we take for granted.  I attempt to convey both a sense of humor and seriousness typical of life.
Janet was extremely generous, and allowed me to use her studio, clay, glazes and kilns for my own work.  It was there that I developed this series of 'Wall Plates."  Very decorative, colorful,high-gloss gems to be hung on the wall.  I took the idea from those old plate-like decorative flue covers used to cover the hole left when a wood stoves was removed, and discarded. additionally my plates are based on the tradition of decorative collector plates my work departs from the refined machine aesthetic typical of many of these:  I prefer a singular,  expressive,  and painterly effect.
The plates are slab constructed of low fire Terracotta clay.  the images carved,  incised,  parts are cut from other slabs and applied in bas-relief.  Underglaze paints are applied. then they are bisque fired. The next step is a cear gaze applied over the underglazes, and finally, when dry, the plates are fired a second time.

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