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.
