Photos and Revelations

Yesterday I spent some time taking some photos of individual works in preparation for my Spring Pop-Up sale on April 30th.

The images turned out great- often I feel like the images I take, while ok, don’t really show the pots how I see them. With these photos, the images are not only showing the pots how I see them, they are actually helping me see and understand my own work.There's no special photography tricks involved with these photos, they are just standard documentary shots with very little editing.  But there is something about how these photos allow me to focus on the qualities of the pots without distractions that is helping me put my aspirations into words

You can get a sense in these bowls of the complex dance between the glaze surface and the form. When I make these bowls I stretch the rims fairly aggressively, which creates a fair amount of tension. When the pot fires, it “unscrews” itself slightly (think of how your muscles relax in a sauna), and in that relaxing of tension there is a slight undulation in the form. You can see that undulation in the first photo, and how it is reflected in the flowing interplay of the glazes.

There is an element of serendipity in the pots I am making. It is not about “chance” exactly; it’s about setting up conditions that invite the kiln and the glazes to collaborate in the determination of the finished pieces. That collaboration; that kind of listening and responding to the materials, is a major motivation for me to keep making.