Wacky people make wonky pots

Beatrice Wood

George Ohr

Peter Voulkos

These potters are all very famous for their crazy personalities and their wonky, full of life and character pots.  There seems to be a fearlessness, sense of freedom and play.  They are obviously not afraid to try new things and not hung up on straight lines or overly clean edges.  Fresh and humble they capture the Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic.  

behold the Byzantine icons

Byzantine Icon Painting

Byzantine Icon Painting

Painted Monastery in Romania

I have always been drawn to the elaborate and ornate art that flourishes in old churches. I was not raised going to church so I enter every church as a detached visitor not caught up in the religious part and just there to take in the art. I pretty much enter every temple, monastery or grand cathedral I come across. To me it makes no difference if it is catholic, Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu-all have something for me to behold. My favorite though is Eastern Orthodox Byzantine icons. I am drawn to the rich worn away colors of red, green and blue with bold black outlines set off with luscious gold, velvet, gems...its all at once decadent and humble. The figures are very two dimensional and otherworldly. Everything is usually very crowded and overly expressive and emotional. I am also drawn to the architectural frames of the icon paintings. Two summers ago I was able to visit many of the famous painted monasteries in Romania and see all of this first hand.

Eastern European folk costumes

Polish folk costumes

Hungarian folk costumes

Romanian Folk costumes


It is true. I am obsessed with Eastern European folk culture. I've always been drawn to it as a pattern motif and now that I have actually been to villages and seen this stuff up close I'm even more hooked. I am particularly fond of the traditional folk costumes. It's the bold colors, the millions of layers and the utterly, overwhelming cramming of patterns into space that I enjoy. These patterns smack you in the face with an enthusiastic hooray. Like the loud pop of an opening champagne bottle, fireworks, a meadow in full bloom, or the crescendo of a song. These outfits speak to merriment and joy from a time and place where this was still a priority. In the face of poverty and struggle the spirit summons a refusal to be resigned and lashes back with bright bold colors. You see this again and again in lower-class populations all over the world. For this reason I like to surround myself with these fabrics and I find there colors and patterns creeping into my artwork as well.

Asian Ceramics

Chinese Yixing Teapot

Korean Celadon teapot

Japanese Woodfired pot

One of the early things that seduced me into the realm of clay was coming across Asian ceramics piled up in the stores of the busy markets of big city china towns. I have always loved the rough and gestural look of Japanese woodfired ceramics, the deep water celadon glazes and elegant forms perfected in Korean ceramics, and the soft, natural look of Chinese Yixing teapots. Asian Ceramics have been a huge influence in both my work and my love for ceramics in general. Every time I am in an Asian market I hold the ceramics in my hand and think "how can I make this, I have to make this!" I spend a lot of time picking up already made ceramics and feeling every bit of the form...looking at the the rim and the foot..peering deeply into the glaze considering what it may be made of, how it might have been fired. Museums have also been a great place for me to take in the ceramics of Asia (both ancient and contemporary). They never let me touch them though! It has been a long time dream and goal of mine to travel to Asia just to visit the old pottery villages and kiln sites there. I want to stay up all night stoking an anagama kiln with Japanese Zen monks. I'd like to travel down the old silk route and dig up some of that yixing clay. Sit by the side of the great masters of Korea as they carve into their pots with their homemade tools. The ceramics of Asia is such a deep foundation to rest upon in the land of clay. Every time you start to doubt the medium all you have to do is look east and look back and there are multitudes of well made objects to help put that shiver back in your spine.

places that have never left me...

Kathmandu

Rickshaw drivers in India

Tibetan prayer flags in the Himalayan foothills

Nepali tea pickers in Himalayan foothills


I've failed to mention so far any of my real life experiences that have influenced and inspired me. Travel has been an essential part of my life...it has shaped me in layers that are hard to place your finger on. Like layers upon layers of old hand me down clothes...as they unravel you can see bits of other layers poking through. What, Who, Where and Why? You wonder because it's no longer in context...
Whenever I travel I fully dive into another galaxy...submerged, I joke with the locals, chewing on their favorite snacks, dropping slang and antidotes as I bounce someones baby on my knee while convincing everyone that I completely belong there, have always been there somehow...even though I've just walked up the road an hour ago. When it comes time to leave they never want to let me go. I always move on anyways because why settle for just one and only one galaxy? If you have known many you always know that there are so many more out there...its hard to ever sit still.
So I suppose in my travels I have been influenced not just by the places I have been to, but by this way of life in general. The ability to adapt and take in and then let go again. Parred with a puzzled longing for the other things you've known and the aspects that made a lot more sense. You smash apart your world so it can expand again and of course you feel fragmented. It becomes as routine as breathing and like anything you collect in large quantity you lose track after awhile. I have more memories than I can really do justice. As my mind goes these influences drift into a subtle subconscious realm and that is when it comes out into my artwork...

So yes..India and Nepal. In 1999 I traveled there with my bicycle. It was my first experience in a 3rd world country and on bike I was not sheltered from the rain or the grabbing hands of the ragtag children who chased me down the road begging for candy. Ritual, bright colors in contrast with decay and poverty, animals in the street, religion and family, people who knew how to co-exist in a very crowded space. The intensity and overwhelming smells, colors, tastes, sounds and forms...they have never left me.

Expressive figures

Robert Arnerson

Arthur Gonzalez

Rimas Visgirda

These are all successful and contemporary ceramic figure sculptors that I can relate to. I like their ability to stray from realism into more expressive graphic forms. I like that their pieces have a 2-D painterly style but then do not deny that they are clay with there rough surfaces. Good use of color and narrative. All a bit moody, sarcastic and humorous.

Space invaders

Ann Hamilton

Andy Goldsworthy

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

These installation artists have all inspired me due to their ability to think big and transform public spaces into otherworldly abstractions. These pieces all exist only for a moment of time but manage to have a profound impact on the viewer in that they are able to create a shift in every day reality. I think this is the most important job of an artist. To take in the world we live in , interpret it, and communicate this back to others in a way that can open eyes or create feelings of kindred understanding. I am interested in installation art in that it can be a shared/communal experience of shifted perception. Each day we are subject to the cities we walk through and are impacted by what others have planned for us in terms of streets, parks and architecture. In these modern times man dictates nature and the land we inhabit and it is decided what we take in each day. Unfortunately in this era putting art into our daily lives is the last consideration of the corporate driven city planners. Art is less and less incorporated into our public spaces of daily use. I think because of this it is all the more shocking when suddenly there is something out of the ordinary and non-utilitarian that occupies these spaces. These artists have all maniuplated this delema in a powerfull way. How can I create art that can interact with, inspire or turn upside down the perceptions of people as they pass by amidst the bussle of their daily grind?

Good ol gals

Kathe Kollwitz

Dorthea Lang

Frida Kalo

These ladies sure knew what they were doing. A painter, photographer and print maker...all 2-D, but how I would like to sculpt. Gestural, intuitive, emotional. Capturing the beauty in the pain of life. Feminine, strong and resilient. Wise and vulnerable and therefor powerful.

oldies but goodies

Dali

Picasso

Matisse


Dali, Picasso, Matisse. These guys have all been at it for awhile. They made their mark long ago and thus have saturated our culture with their images. These paintings are all inside or me. Working intuitively the history of their marks flow through my hand.

2-D to 3-D aesthetic

Pati Warashina

Akio Takamori

Betty Woodman

This group of Ceramic artists inspire me for their ability to speak to a painterly/drawing like 2-D aesthetic within their 3-D Ceramic sculptural work. Expressive, colorful, strong line quality...Asian influence or inspiration. These artists all have captured a freshness that also has a sense of control and believability. Their work is narrative but also abstract and dreamlike. It resonates on an emotional level. Why is it not in 2-D? Why do these need to be clay? How does it being clay strengthen all of these aspects of the work? Thats what I am asking myself....

Insperational Potters from Oregon

Barb Campbell

I met Barb soon after Victoria and they seem ot be part of the same Sisterhood. I love Barb's playful and experimental forms, each one animated and meant to be your special friend. She was the first to teach me that you do not need to use the wheel for functional forms and that functional forms don't really need to function that well to work and be loved.

Insperational Potters from Oregon

Victoria Christen

Victoria is probably one of the most well known and successful potters I know in Oregon. She was the fist female potter I met who employed this same rustic, active wabi-sabi type style in her work but then had an added dimension of feminine delicate daintiness. Her painterly sense of color and line work in her surfaces have been a hudge insperation to me. Her sense of hummor and strong work ethic are also great.

Insperational Potters from Oregon

Richard Rowland

I first met Richard at a mold making demo he did at Portland Community College. His molds were archaic and crazy and he was casting things that floated up from the ocean and dead dog heads. He was the fist potter I met where ideas came first and craft second. Whatever technique one needed to use to get the idea out there then use it. His objects were not perfect but were full of life and emotion. He invited me to fire with him at his Astoria Anagama Dragon kiln where I was introduced to a large band of people who gave clay the magical honor that it deserves.