History of Forms

 

The site -- forms of the formless ceramic -- was first inaugurated as animal wilderness influenced by all the treks into the desert and the walks up the Mazatals in the 80’s on first arrival. These were captured in the long series of pastels done then along the Four Peaks Trail especially. I would  pack my two kids starting that first summer and continuing in our car and head to the Beeline Hghwy early, dawn with coffee and sketch pads. It was clean and pure in the desert in June at sunup. We would last until late morning and be back home about noon when the heat was hot. Even the way there was unique, straight out McDowell before a lot of the shopping centers existed, then north. We went up every dirt road and far into to the casino property before it was along the gualupe, into the roads of SRP, all over the Salt river canyons, further up and up, around the back of the amethyst mind/mine, all the names now faith/faint in memory, for I had/still have all the topo maps, all the way down to the flooded sands of the river where I had to dig out with my bare hands and a piece of chicken wire left by barbecues there, my 2 and 6 year olds watching. One time we came on an Indian massacre. It looked like with two cars and 8 Indians in the road, one with a split nose like a plum dripping blood who I drove to the hghy to get fixed. All sketched, The saguaro mule deer, the mountains male and female embracing, the rocks laminating in the wilderness vibrating.

Much of this work is improvisational, begun with a fragment of idea recognized as the work progresses.  First solid, stable, but taken to where it begins to fall, just intervening in the collapse, the clay is shifted and pulled, but it is a hollow or solid cylinder when all is said and done, that from from the various strength and weakness in the stretching, pulled back from the brink, it is a rescue. It has to be remembered that these are three dimensional, have sides and backs to the front side viewed in the photographs which have to be as good as organic as the front in advancing the impression.

Sculptures and murals appear here. The sculptures are laminated layers of different clays, stressed and sculpted into figures which must stop short of falling to remain upright. Parables of redemption, just intervening in the collapse, for they are hollow cylinders when all is said and done, the tallest about 27" and can fall from the imprecise pressure of  stretching the various strength and weakness of the clays, which have no armature, and need to be pulled back from the brink. The murals haven't circulated to shows because they need to be hung but are put in glass cases.

 First there were small figures, bears floating in a cloud, children playing with lollipops, but after an early version of Bruegel’s Opening of the Fifth Seal, the Early Captives of Egypt, portals of the divine gates and  seraphim. Many processions become figures or immigrant families of up to four that cover compositions. Some become in-depth looks of one or two. There are a number of horses, and stand alone figures like medieval woodcuts, finished in glass, and whole heads mounted on a background of plexiglass.

The idea generally is to give form to the formless, the invisible, the unknowable, meaning the spiritual world. Many of the ceramic murals explore this by bringing but not quite bringing a picture of what really exists that cannot be seen by posing linked identities, one in one world one in the other, that have similar names but are unknowable to each other except from some third narrative view.This teasing the brain tries to make sense of unknown patterns by making them into the known even though the two worlds exist untranslatable to each other.

Captions—All high fire reduction atmosphere.

Looking for Work. 2012. 20x9x6 First place Standing Sculpture, AZ State Fair, 2012.

Tortoise 2013. 11x9x10

Holding the Lamb 2014. 21x11x1/4 published as cover at https://issuu.com/buffaloalmanack/docs/issue9

Orchidaceae. 2018. 16x14x11 Best of Show, AZ State Fair 2018

Weimar 2014. 21x10x8 Basis for article, “Oracle,” Red Fez Magazine 71. 13 Sept 2014

First there were small mural figures, bears floating in a cloud, children playing with lollipops, but after an early version of Bruegel’s Opening of the Fifth Seal, the Early Captives of Egypt, portals of the divine gates and  seraphim. Figures became processions of immigrant families and in-depth looks of one or two. There are a number of horses, and stand alone figures like medieval woodcuts, finished in glass, and whole heads mounted on backgrounds of plexiglass.