Last Thanksgiving I started this sculpture, which is still a work in progress. A colleague who's a professional sculptor who teaches at BU, was teaching the last class before break. Not many students were there. She asked me to join in the studio that day.
With clay, there's "throwing" and there's throwing. This sculpture, which I made out of a couple of large pieces of wet clay, was thrown, quickly, curved in my hands, laid on large and small, hard newspaper balls, and put to rest. I think Kitty was surprised at how quickly I worked. At least that's what she remarked to the students.
My goal with this and other recent sculptures is to find flow. I want to engage in the clay at a scale that's challenging...almost too large to keep control over...and find a resting point where I'm satisfied with the shape. For me, satisfaction depends on balance, randomness, abstraction, and a state of the clay in which it looks like it might have taken shape naturally. Obviously the piece has to be able to support itself once it's dry and fired.
In this piece I was experimenting with perforations, which I'd like to explore more. The piece just after it, which I recently published as "Portal to Nature" was itself a large perforation. Lots to work with here, and I'd love to hear your comments.
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