The Egg Series
This pivotal series lasted for 15 years and is the cornerstone of my ceramic sculpture conceptual development. I “came down to earth” after close to 10 years making ceramic murals, experiencing my environment close up. Seed and ovoid forms became the opportunity to show the outside world I was seeing and the inside world that I was feeling at the same time. I used chiffon to separate these inside and outside locations inspired by the boxes seen in Joseph Cornell’s extraordinary artwork created on his kitchen table after a long day of being a postman. The outside of these pod-shaped forms would have a general character and inside, one’s eyes needed to see through the chiffon to discover the surrealistic location within. Not only were these forms a recollection of art history such as investigations by Brancusi, but also geologic phenomenon like fractals under microscopic magnification. I played with ideas that an egg could be cracked open and surprise - an entire world was discovered gestating inside, like a geode found in nature. Trees, nests and eggs were all mixed up the way I see nature flexing new muscles to adapt to new environmental boundaries. I let myself wander in any direction that had to do with the birth of the next thought, the next socio-political phenomenon or context that people might observe.
Slung, Stoneware, rope, mixed media, 40x18x8", 2010, Price Available on Request
Birdhouse Inside Out, Stoneware, bees wax, zip ties, 24x7x6", 2008, Private Collection
Birdhouse 5, Ceramic, zip ties, 16x7x4", 2008, Collection of The National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia
Woman On Man Grey, ceramic, mixed media, 18x12x10", 2006/2010, Collection of The Keramik Museum, Germany
Geode 4, Stoneware, concrete, 15x18x12", 2005, Private Collection
Tree of Life, Stoneware, rubber, metal, 18x12-1/2x1', 2006, Private Collection
Many Voices, Stoneware, 21x14x12", 2005, Collection of The Kirkland Museum, Denver
Black Madonna, Stoneware, gold leaf, mixed media, 24x18x9", 2004, Collection of The Keramik Museum, Germany
Deep Moab, Stoneware, twigs, chiffon, enamels, 21x13x9", 2001, Price Available on Request
Deep Moab, Detail, Stoneware, twigs, chiffon, enamels, 21x13x9", 2001, Price Available on Request
Prana III, Ceramic, mixed media, 24x13x9", 2004, Private Collection
The Fall, Ceramic, dried leaves, chiffon, wood, mixed media, 29x13x7", 1998, Private Collection
Gene Pool, Ceramic, gold leaf, copper, wax, wood, mixed media, 21x13x9", 1995, Private Collection
Spring Shadows, Ceramic, chiffon, wood, mixed media, 32x12x9", 2001, Private Collection
Chakra, Stoneware, rubber, stainless steel, 36x13x9", 2002, Price Available on Request
After Rumi, Ceramic, rope, brick, mixed media, 50x13x8", 2002, Collection of The American Embassy, Belize
Ayajwasca, Ceramic, rope, rubber, wood, mixed media, 60x13x8", 2002, Collection of The American Embassy, Belize
Ayajwasca, side detail, Ceramic, rope, rubber, wood, mixed media, 60x13x8", 2002, Collection of The American Embassy, Belize
Thin Skin, Ceramic, chiffon, wood, mixed media, 19x12x7", 1997, Private Collection
Topographical Aerial Murals
After attending the University of Illinois, I moved west and set up a studio in Colorado. Beginning in the 1990’s, I began creating some large porcelain and stoneware murals for corporate commissions throughout the region, focused on aerial views of the landscape. I was captivated by the diversity of landscape textures having come from the flat corn fields of the midwest. I developed a shorthand for locations that was abstract but discernable for specific areas, like urban renewal developments of different income levels, railroads, mountain ranges, weather, map markings, rivers and roads all to create something familiar to us yet seen from a new aerial view. Many of these commissions featured imagery specific to the location they were to be placed in, such as Dallas and urban imagery or world wide oil drilling suggested by the tectonic plates of history shifting to current day locations.
Linear City, Front & Detail, The Urban Renewal Series; Stained Porcelain, 3'x21'x4", 1990, Fagadau Energy Co, Dallas, TX
Continental Driftscape Front & Detail, Stoneware, Inlaid Porcelain, Enamels, Oak Mounting; 4’x25’x2", 1992, Phillips Petroleum Co, Denver
Delta Weatherscape, 3/4 View & Detail, Stoneware, Inlaid Porcelain, Enamels, Oak Mounting; 3’x17’x3", 1992, Wm Walters Corp, Denver
Winterscape Reversed, Front & Detail, Porcelain, Velcro Mounting; 2 panels(2’x20’x2"), 1992, Wm Walters, Denver
Desertscape (1 of the 2 panels commissioned are shown here), Stained Porcelain, 3'x21'x2" each panel, 1992, National Bank of Texas, Houston
Desertscape, detail, Stained Porcelain, 3'x21'x2" each panel, 1992, National Bank of Texas, Houston