W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery
Das Narrenschiff, 2018
hard-ground etching
14.25 x 7.5“
Courtesy of the artist
I am happy to report that my fourth and final etching from the series based on the sixteenth century engraver Hendrick Goltzius’ The Four Disgracers is complete. Titled Mendacia Ridicula (The Wheel of Ixion), it is derived from the most detailed and complex of Goltzius’ four engravings which, in turn, were based on paintings by the Dutch artist Cornelis van Haarlem. Updated to reflect current curses of humanity, this image in particular will delight, edify, or offend, depending. And to those who demand more civility in public discourse while cravenly enabling insanity, I can only reply, “Mendacia Ridicula!”
Das Narrenschiff was inspired by the renowned painting Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch, who, in turn, was likely influenced by Sebastian Brandt’s 15th century litany of follies in verse (112 to be exact) titled Das Narrenschiff.
The medieval Ship of Fools trope tapped into by Brandt has probable origins in an excerpt from Book VI in Plato’s Republic.
Modern concerns combined with indiscriminate anachronism take precedence in my new work, and everyone should be beginning to wonder what that taste is when they bite into their next tuna sandwich.
Mendacia Ridicula (The Wheel of Ixion), 2018
hard-ground etching
6 x 6“
Courtesy of the artist
Collateral Damage: Sailor, Soldier, Marine, 2017 porcelain slip sast ceramic, cone 05, ammo cans
31 x 34 x 20"
Courtesy of the artist
Detail
Collateral Damage – the general term for deaths, injuries or other damage inflicted on an unintended target. One might argue that a soldier, sailor, or marine cannot be collateral damage because they are combatants who have chosen to fight. I argue that many of these young people do not have a choice, and society makes them fight. The loss of one’s innocence and soul is the collateral damage.
The dynamics and backbone of the urban environment are steel structures as the important element to their existence. This view captures the geometry and strength of these “bones” that hold our cities together.
Structure, 2018
lithograph
7.5 x 9“
Courtesy of the artist
Nectar and Splitting Hare are pieces from a series that I am continuing to make pieces for called The Nature We Create. The series reflects how wild animals have to adapt to our landfill problem.
Splitting Hare, 2019
stoneware and found object
5 x 12 x 5”
Courtesy of the artist
Nectar, 2019
stoneware and found objects
7.5 x 4 x 2.5”
Courtesy of the artist
Unknown 30, 2017
acrylic ink, acrylic paint on canvas on panel
24 x 24 x 2”
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My painting process is a form of meditation, an opening up of myself to what is in the moment. The forms that appear as I apply ink over acrylic paint guide me. This glowing form at center prompts a slowing down of mental chatter as the work makes itself felt –calling forth archetypal experiences– becoming an expression of the mysterious, and perhaps alluding to the collective unconscious. A potential gateway to the inner self, this painting is channeling a spiritual force greater than the artist.
Detail
Wanted: Shoplifter documents surveillance techniques that create modern day “Wanted” posters. My compositions are created through a fusion of photographic and hand-drawn layers, composited in Photoshop, and printed onto vellum. Additional layers of ink and varnish are applied through experimental printmaking techniques to achieve the final finish, with a limited print run of three per image.
Wanted: Shoplifter, 2018
silkscreen on cotton paper with mixed media
10 x 13“
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Crowd Scene is a representation of the jumble and loneliness of crowds. I utilized the unpredictability of poured ink to evoke feelings of movement and jostling, as well as gradation in density between the center and edges of the crowd.
Crowd Scene, 2019
Sumi-e ink on paper
15.5 x 10.3
Courtesy of the artist
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Bag, Banana and Carrot
from the series of Grocery Stories, 2018
screen print on brown “shopping” bags
17 x 12 x 7” each
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The connection in all my work is the human search for meaning through order, and the arbitrary nature of the order we create. My most recent work has veered toward text based art with the goal of choosing a process, imagery, and medium that adds layers of understanding to the words.
Bag, Banana, and Carrot are a series of Grocery Stories, in which my search for order and perfection in mundane tasks is taken to the point of comic absurdity. The humorous self-deprecating text is echoed by the ridiculous effort of multi-color screen printing on lumpy, ubiquitous grocery bags.
Momentum is the expression of the feminine emergence of spirituality. The female form is breaking out of the constraints of society, religion, and old traditions of spirituality towards a new expression of power, strength, and leadership, which embraces intuition, flow, and grace. This image is inspired by my years of experience studying, practicing, training and teaching the non-violent martial arts form of Aikido and Japanese sword forms, as well as meditation.
Placed on pedestals, these works juxtapose the commonplace with the prestige of fine art exhibition.
Momentum, 2015
graphite and sumi ink on paper
43 x 28“
Courtesy of the artist
Natural objects, such as the stump of an old tree have great beauty. The worn bark shows the years of wear, as well as the rings of an old tree can be counted to indicate its actual age. Natural objects tend to age gracefully and display subtle variations in color and texture. These items are discovered usually by accident, like finding a beautiful piece of driftwood on the beach. By acknowledging the beauty, picking up the object and taking it home, you breathe life into the once lifeless piece and others soon share in your vision.
Pine Tree Stump Vessel, 2019
clay
9 x 14 x 10”
Courtesy of the artist
Standing Woman is made from cone-ten clay with a black underglaze. I especially enjoy the tactile and expressive nature of clay. I much admire 20th century art. It combines expression with simplified form, which is not as easy as it sounds. Sculpture is often referred to as plastic in form, especially 20th century sculpture. I enjoyed pulling and pushing this figure together and was interested in crafting expression with figurative form. The stance is pushing against conventional ideals and makes the statement of strength and dignity. The standing figure is a representation of the courage and fortitude of the female figure.
Standing Figure, 2018
clay and glaze
15 x 9.5 x 4.5”
Courtesy of the artist
I am a sculptural ceramic artist who creates vessels that explores abstract painting, architecture, fashion, and nature. Trained as a painter, my sculptural ceramic work focuses on bringing a freshness and immediacy to each piece through color, form, and surface texture. Every work is one of a kind whether it is thrown on a wheel, hand-built, or a combination of both techniques. While investigating an interest in form, the work produces a continual shift between surface, texture, color and object. Each vessel provides a contemporary sense of life that is very personal and universal at the same time.
No. 440, 2019
clay, high fire, stoneware
20 x 18 x 18”
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It’s mesmerizing to see how a gesture of a drawn line, a form, or an artistic expression can transcend borders between countries and can resonate over and over again through the centuries. In my work, I love to explore these connections of new and old, distant and local, and interweave my daily reflections with old ceramic traditions.
My recent work is inspired by the Oribe tradition, the magic of a broken pattern, and the power of an obstructed view. When working with clay, I am keen to explore the intertwining of predicted patterns and random fluctuations. Although my materials and surfaces are different from those used in 16-17th century Japan, I feel that my work is connected to the Oribe tradition of the pursuit in the subtle beauty of incomplete.
Tea Caddy VII, 2018
low fire terracotta, sgrafitto on terra sigillata
5 x 10 x 7”
Courtesy of the artist
With this work I want to transmit the harmony between man and elephant. I have incorporated earthenware, porcelain, slips and oxides to recreate a daily image of mutual help between humans and animals.
More and more, man invades the geographic habitat of the fauna, reaching harmful consequences, making it necessary to find the key to reduce the conflict between them.
Wisdom and Loyalty, 2019
hand-built coil, white clay,
horse hair, wood, iron wheels
38 x 32 x 24”
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I make sculptures of prehistoric animals that represent the wonder to be found in natural history. I am intrigued by animals that evolved with distinct features, such as unfamiliar tusks, strange elongated limbs, or unusual proportions. I use clay to bring these extinct creatures back to life, sculpting folds of flesh and filling their bellies with air.
The picturesque aesthetic of the eighteenth century refers to a time when our relationship to nature was being expanded by scientific discoveries, yet separated by the disappearance of wild places. In Passé Doré, as in every scene that I create, is a fantasy inspiring curiosity about the unknown animal, while nourishing the imagination of the viewer with intricate details. Mysterious giants wander through palatial ruins, discovering the overgrown remains of monuments to human greatness. Moss and vines cover the fossils of civilization, and show the effects of time in their decay.
My work uses reflective nostalgia to present these extinct animals within the context of human history. The unexpected combination of such contrasting timelines questions reality, and rekindles a childlike fascination with the animal world.
Passé Doré, 2017
ceramic, flocking, gold leaf, wax
36 x 22 x 14”
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We all experience moments of emotional impact when something upsetting occurs. This piece is a portrayal of my physical and emotional reaction the instant an event impacts me. I am depicting both the external and internal process of a human reaction at a moment in time. Abstraction and reality reflect the human condition emphasizing that different viewpoints or aspects occurring simultaneously is a shared experience by us. This piece is a mirror allowing us to recognize our humanity and all that accompanies it.
It's not what I wanted it to be
Sumi-e ink on paper
26 x 19"
Courtesy of the Artist
Lace ( laqueare ) in Latin means “to enclose in a noose, trap.”
Sheer graceful lace over well-worn, old Bible pages.
Are the words trapping the lace, or is the lace putting a noose around the words?
Lace, 2019
monoprint oil-based ink on old bible pages
43 x 31“
Courtesy of the artist
My work is about the human body. I explore the relationships and attitudes related to how we treat, view, and perceive our own bodies and the bodies of others. Our bodies, just like our views and tastes, are different and beautiful in their own special ways. I want to convey that these differences are an important part of what makes us unique. I want the viewers to embrace that uniqueness no matter how different it is.
As an interdisciplinary artist, I create sculptural pieces using porcelain and mixed media such as resins, fibers, wires, pins, and pearls. The scale and surface finishes play an important role in my art as I like bringing the viewer closer to my pieces, allowing a pause, and creating a more intimate moment while viewing my work.
In pari delicto, 2018
porcelain, acrylic, resin, pins,
baroque pearls, fibers
10.5 x 9 x 15”
Courtesy of the artist
My work examines distance and dependence between individuals, or on our memories or situations, which translates to physical space between ceramic objects. Drawing on the intimate nature of clay and playing with the distance and engagement between objects allows me to consider how those objects might be experienced from different perspectives and possible narratives that express the human condition.
Clay is delightfully tactile and has the ability to heighten our connection with the life of the object. I am fascinated by clays permanence and tactility, drawing influence from handheld artifacts and monolithic stone monuments of prehistory as records of utility and mythos. Through my collaboration with clay, I imbue forms with my own mythologies, transforming them into ritual objects. Acting as reliquaries for the human condition, these precious objects take on lives of their own, and become meaningful connections between lives - present and long past.
Portrait, 2019
glazed ceramic
32 x 7 x 14.4”
Courtesy of the artist
A toxic brew of subjective and cultural relativism is eroding many cultural, moral, and philosophical systems that arguably once bound us together. I am curious about these and other systems; their genesis, why they failed, and what springs up to fill the void.
My work is a response to these systems and their failures which looks as if it once belonged to a larger whole, but is now fragmented, partially erased, and obscured. There are hints of structure and patterns that may have held some significance, but that meaning is now indeterminate. What’s left are the remains –degraded and unbound– a visual metaphor for our time.
Double Negative, 2017
stoneware, gas-fired cone 6, electric-fired cone 04
11 x 8 x 1.5”
Courtesy of the artist
I do not envision what a given finished painting or print will look like. I start with color and build atmospheric fields to support forms. Each form is a feeling. I stack these forms like piles of books on a shelf. Time passes as I build layers. Blot it, wipe it away. Start over with a new thing, a new time, a new place. The process is an outlet for me to work towards becoming content with the unknown. Just as chance encounters impact our lives, I want to allow chance brushstrokes to change the outcome of an image. I want you to feel something in this moment. There is only this: now –a feeling that touches the heart, that touches the hand, that touches the brush to the paper.
There is joy in mystery. Yet personal growth is primarily a search for meaning and for definition. My process is a reinforcement of these conflicting ideals –an embrace of both the mystery and the meaning. The ability to bend, stay pliant, to accept and even welcome change is a valuable skill and one which I hope reflects in my work.
Intention, 2017
screen printed watercolor monotype
15 x 11“
Courtesy of the artist
Rio Bravo II-II, 2019
lithograph
9 x 13“
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My work is an attempt to reveal internal struggles with a chronic illness while referencing chaotic, often conflicting aspects of ‘border’ life. These aberrant sites and abandoned still lifes reflect a broken condition within an alienated community –the Rio Grande Valley.
The manifestations of these vessels tend to pierce through subconscious thoughts, forcing me to continually question my sense of place and inner stability.
The Mystic Leaf Bottle and Saucer is hand carved with leaf design that overlaps such that there is no beginning and no end. The Mystic Leaf Bottle and Saucer were glazed with green celadon to accent the carving details.
Working in porcelain, I especially love the translucency and light reflections of the glaze/body fusion at high temperatures. I also love the sensuality of the porcelain; it is the silk of ceramics.
In this bottle and saucer I experimented with texture, patterns, and the interplay between order and randomness. This interplay was created to be functional, like a Saki bottle, but also to intrigue the eye. I try to capture the spirit of nature by changing the real leaf impressions to something more free form and flowing to add motion into my work.
The Mystic Leaf Bottle and Saucer, 2018
wheel-thrown, hand-carved, high-fired reduction
6 x 4.5 x 4.5”
Courtesy of the artist
Alternate Views
Barbie and her best friend Stacy are lesbians and have lived together since the late 1960s. They got married a few years ago. This painting documents their wedding and also their relationship. We see their bed and gifts to each other over the years including perfume and shoes. There is writing next to objects, telling the story of their life and love together.
Just Married After All These Years, 2016 watercolor, pen and ink, brush and ink, pencil
20 x 13“
Courtesy of the artist
Maintaining a Tenuous Construct, 2017
ceramic, steel
25 x 10 x 13”
Courtesy of the artist
Maintaining a Tenuous Construct is a figurative ceramic sculpture, which explores the will-power required to maintain a belief, regardless of its validity. There is something of Don Quixote ‘tilting’ at windmills in this work. It includes climate change deniers, justice warriors, utopians and anarchists, TED Talks, conservative talk radio, and basically all of us in the same thought. The work deals with the arrogance and absurdity in the certainty of moral and intellectual superiority. The work is a folly, but also a romantic depiction of the self-constructed power of belief and determination aside from cynicism.
Maintaining a Tenuous Construct also deals with the beauty in tragedy and failure, the dogmatic tenaciousness required to hold on to a dead idea in the face of evidence. What makes us do this? What pride and self-consciousness drives us to protect an ideology as if it were a suffering child? In art, I can’t offer a lot of answers. I’m mostly embroiled in questions.
Not My Monkeys, Not My Circus, 2018
ceramic
22.5 x 13 x 16”
Courtesy of the artist
Not My Monkeys, Not My Circus is a twice life size ceramic head, which evokes a resistance to societal norms and forces. It is a memorial to the individual spirit. The title refers to a modern Polish proverb “These are not my monkeys. This is not my circus.” My interpretation of the meaning of the proverb is that a person has the right to walk away from the expectations that others place on them in order to stay true to themselves.
The head that I chose to represent this idea is that of a young woman. As an old white man who often teaches young women and a diversity of people in the classroom, I have to ask myself, “How often do I impose my values on others? How well do I listen? Am I an advocate or an obstacle?” Some of the societal absurdities that I faced in my own life remain absurd. I want to salute the people who follow their own moral path despite punitive pressure to conform.
Ascension
begun in darkness,
a seed knows exactly what to do.
ushering forth –unselfconsciously if at all possible. be patient
be present
to self and the world.
Be a single flower,
unafraid of what comes next
that is enough–
an endless act of becoming, and un-becoming
That is hope.
Beyond multitudes,
blossoms remind us that we were also built for beauty, and for whimsy.
Ascension, 2016-17
Chine collé monoprint
13.5 x 11”
Courtesy of the artist
I start out my etchings broadly but with a clear geometric underpinning. The process of etching is physical and elemental, requiring force and pressure, inviting aggression and then delicacy, conjoining fire, water, earth, and air. I embrace themes of loss, futility, destruction, and unexpected, redemptive beauty. Themes tied to the tradition of printmaking, whose imagery has always tended toward critical commentary and serious contemplation, and often toward humor and irony as well. The etchings in this series are based on the form of the 17th century emblem book. The historical book intended associations and diverse meanings of key elements of the world in schematic and formal spatial arrangements. The emblem book envisioned the universe as ‘like a book or mirror of our life and death’, and objects in the world as invested with immediate and enduring universal significance.
Pine Cone, 2015
etching
5 x 5“
Courtesy of the artist
I recently became fascinated with intricate, small details using the smallest fine liner pen I could find (.03 Copic Multi-liner).
I didn’t have a plan for this drawing, and started making lines at different thicknesses, and defined the forms using mostly stippling. I am automatically drawn to forms that appear alien-like, intestinal, or phallic, and enjoy the idea of the forms working independently yet connected by a seemingly insignificant vein. As their existence depends on the connection, they appear forced into isolation.
Here I Crawl, 2019
fine liner pen on toned paper 11 x 4”
Courtesy of the artist
Detail
Resistance Cup Set, 2019
ceramics
7 x 8 x 8” each
Courtesy of the artist
Detail
This Resistance Cup Set represents three resistance movements to the Trump administration and the values he represents. The first cup does not hold water and is the catalyst for the rest of the set.
The hands in the three resistance cups stand for the support given to these causes by the masses. The Women’s Resistance Cup depicts the pink hat worn at marches and actual picket signs carried by protesters. The Environmental Tsunami Cup handle is a giant wave representative of rising sea levels and increased frequency and destruction of storms. The Eiffel Tower either sits inside or outside the cup regarding the sink or swim option in deciding to remain in the Paris Climate Accord or not. The polar bear and penguins float on individual icebergs in waters of broken sea ice. The Support for Immigrants Cup is lead by the Statue of Liberty holding a Dreamer child –the billboard speaks to sanctuary cities. A desk on the saucer represents free legal services that were offered by lawyers pro-bono at airports during the Muslim ban. The saucer depicts signs carried in protests defending immigrants and refugees. Inside the cup are removable scales of justice.
In this life-size sculpture of a two-headed creature, its appears to depict two variations of a rabbit. One is human, a laughing girl wearing a playful but elaborate rabbit hood, and the other is animal– a stern-faced hare. The closeness of the heads invites the viewer to compare and contrast these two creatures and is meant to evoke questions within the viewer about the potential relationship between them. Guided by my career practice in psychotherapy and healing, my work intentionally opens space for the interpretive through a blend of fantasy and reality. The title, Folie à Deux, is a psychiatric term for a shared delusion. This work can serve as both a window and a mirror. Viewers may see a portrayal of a close friend or loved one, or even of themselves. Is it a representation of two people sharing the same delusion, as with the psychiatric condition? Or one person who at times embodies markedly different moods or personalities? Could it represent a person’s own opposing inner feelings or desires? Perhaps like the devil and angel on one’s shoulder, is it a representation of the voices in one’s head? Our lives serve as the source for our own interpretation.
Folie à Deux, 2019
clay
22 x 17 x 9”
Courtesy of the artist
Anchises, a mortal king, is visited by the goddess Aphrodite. Knowing that tragedy usually befalls any mortal who dares to lay with a god, and also knowing Aphrodite is irresistible, he prays that he is spared harm, for he must have her. The title is from the ancient Hymn to Aphrodite. The pink Venetian plaster asserts the sexual desire, while the furious black ink is the passion that can lead to disaster.
The Man Who Lies With Immortal Goddesses 2, 2018
ink, Venetian plaster
48 x 48 x 2”
Courtesy of the artist
The Metropolitan Building is a Neo-Gothic historic gem in Detroit. Built in 1925, it became known informally as the Jewelers Building due to the number of jewelers and watchmakers it housed. It fell victim to decay and vandali-zation when it closed and was abandoned in 1979. Luckily, it was recently restored and renovated into a hotel. Prior to its renovation, vines and trees were growing on the roof of the building, trying to surround and penetrate the building with energetic life. This piece represents a juxtaposition of two different types of beauty that complement one another. One of those beauties is vibrant, soft and fluid. The other beauty is intricately detailed, precisely revealing its decay and its preserved history.
Metropolitan Building, 2019
mixed media: micron ink and soft pastels
17 x 13“
Courtesy of the artist
Death has always been a curious and a taboo subject to discuss. In its own right, it has always been depicted as an antagonist of our existence, a hindrance towards our livelihood. This shouldn’t be the case, as death is a part of the cycle of living. Everything that has a beginning, has an end. Thus I hope to desensitize the concept of death by innovating the idea as a character that lives their days. No care in the world, only coexisting with life as one.
Rest, 2019
wall installation: glass, metal, clay
64 x 60 x 10”
Courtesy of the artist
Detail
Cookie Jar No. 2 is about the potentially destructive nature of masculine energy.
The decorative decal text includes many slang terms for male genitalia, and there is a single winning ”swimmer” on the inside of the lid. I want the viewer to be drawn in to look, and then either laugh or be horrified.
Cookie Jar No. 2, 2018
ceramic
16 x 9.5 x 9.5”
Courtesy of the artist
Detail
Vertebral is a piece in my Scholars and Sages series. The wisdom of the ages is communicated not only through words but through texture in this group of sculptures. The vertebrae symbolize an underlying truth. Underneath all our differences we have this in common. Often these are the only bones that remain– signposts to a time passed. My goal as a sculptor is to create freedom of form and thought. The viewer goes on a journey following the lines and curves of each creation. These sculptures are powerful in their slender grace with a palate of color and a hard edge of jaggedness for their underlying shapes.
Vertebral, 2018
clay
68 x 10 x 10”
Courtesy of the artist
Detail
In a mad world, only the court jester can speak truth without fear of beheading. Mr. Rabbit is a trickster-like court jester; a play on both the Cheshire Cat with his mischievous grin and the White Rabbit from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Cheshire Cat, always causing chaos, and also for the anxiety ridden White Rabbit, always running late. Both serve as guides for Alice on her journey of self discovery. Life, with its endless to-do list, can be challenging at the best of times; add to this tyrannical governments, inequality, impending global disaster, personal issues (you name it) and life can seem hopeless. It’s essential to remain curious, to question everything and to laugh like a Mad Hatter at the insanity of it all.
Mr. Rabbit, 2019
oil paint on porcelain
11 x 14 x 7”
Courtesy of the artist
These pieces are from a series of crude hand build terra cotta vessels embellished with complex sgraffito designs. They reflect my own relationship with my five daughters and my longing for simpler times when they were younger and less complicated.
In mythology, mermaids have always represented strong fiercely independent female figures. In myths they are not always understood or trusted. In a mother/daughter relationship there are two forces: one hovering, and one vying to come into their own being. The nature of the relationship is steeped in conflict.
The relationship is painfully complex. It’s crude and intricate, and fascinatingly beautiful.
When My Daughters Were Mermaids, 2018
clay pinch-pots with a complex graffito design
3 x 5.25” dia. and 2.5 x 5.5” dia.
Courtesy of the artist
Who Is My Son is one of a series of small ceramic sculptures called Fragmented. Almost every mother has experienced a moment when they don’t recognize their own children. It is a very disconcerting feeling for a mother. This piece was made at a moment when my son and I were having a fight.
Who Is My Son, 2011
terracotta
28 x 12 x 18”
Courtesy of the artist
Hatching Out, 2018
etching, mixed media
12 x 12“
Courtesy of the artist
Detail
Hatching Out describes emotional and intellectual anguish one experiences at the birth of a new idea. Any new development or intellectual undertaking starts its existence as a fragile “hatchling.” It is impossible to predict which idea will survive and flourish, and which one will die away without making any visible impact. The entire history of human civilization can be regarded as a record of lives and deaths of new ideas. Some of them have just enough power to influence individual lives, while others sweep and take over entire continents. In the present print, I attempted to capture the state of uncertainty moments before the ultimate fate of the idea –its triumph or failure– is decided in history. possible through the slow progress of successive generations of ideas.
The human figure in the center of the print represents a vulnerable, but feisty “hatchling,” ready to take on the world. The ship, as well as wave-shaped architectural elements on the right, embody the two aspects of human civilization: creation (the ship) and destruction (the wave). Various other figures in the print combine elements of human and animal anatomy. They describe man’s transition from his “wild” existence in the “state of nature” to his present “civilized” state. Such transition was only
My ceramics work is all about designing forms and making objects. My mission as an artist is first to create a coherent visual language, and then learn to speak in that language. I am motivated by the exploration of the qualities of the medium, and the experience that these physical objects project into the world. I am drawn to abstract patterns and minimalist archetypal forms that reflect the geometries of nature.
My paper-thin unglazed porcelain works are centered on the luminous qualities of this translucent material. I have pioneered the use soluble metals which allow me to color the clay and create complex patterns. After painting these watercolors on the bisque - fired clay, they interact to create halos and other boundary effects. Some of these metals flux the clay during the vitrification firing, producing surfaces that feature ‘light window’ patterns.
Relational Forms (#878, 935), 2019
unglazed porcelain, soluble metals: gold, cobalt, chromium
9 x 7” dia. and 11 x 4.5”
Courtesy of the artist
Detail
Hardware River Aqueduct III, 2017-18
engraving
7.5 x 12“
Courtesy of the artist
Detail
This is a highly detailed woodcut depicting a little-known stone arch in the Virginia countryside. The arch was constructed in the 1840s as part of a long-defunct canal system.
The piece took months to complete; as with most of my prints, they are all long-term projects and I just work on them a little at a time. It began with a drawing on the woodblock first in charcoal, then in sharpie, using photographic references. After completion of the drawing I started carving with a combination of hand tools and a flex-shaft rotary tool, taking many proofs through the carving process. Each proof informed further carving until I was satisfied with the print.
Spring, 2019
Thai kozo, various clays, photographs, pins
15.5 x 15.5 x 1”
Courtesy of the artist
Spring is from a larger series of 38 letterpress prints. Each print features lines of poetry creating a cento, or collage of poems. The prints represent places I have lived and elements not so easily tucked in a suitcase when I shift homes: relationships, events, employment, places visited, paths walked, rooms, buildings, memories. Spring specifically speaks to my upbringing in South Carolina; each print is embossed with the iron rich clay from this childhood home.
Detail
Afterburn, 2019
ceramic
3 x 11 x 15”
Courtesy of the artist
Detail
Afterburn is a sculpture about the mass fires that have resulted from climate change. The Woolsey fire in Southern California in 2018 influenced Afterburn. This piece imagines a regeneration of the burned land symbolized by the seed pods.
Massachusetts Medicinals is part of my series titled Medicinal Garden and is about the destruction of our natural resources. It is an attempt to draw attention to the beauty and function of plants that exist on our planet. The plant shapes are based on medicinal plants that I grow in my own garden. As a gardner and environmentalist, I am distressed by the plight of our planet and our ignorance of it. Climate change deniers, war mongers, and resource extraction are so far out of control that our species is doomed. I have watched the pollinating bee population decline in my own backyard in the past ten years. This series of extra large vessels is an attempt to remind, draw attention to, and voice my own political call to arms. Our planet’s garden has been polluted, the temperatures have become more extreme and unpredictable, and our society’s turn to gmo and cyborg technologies is not the answer. I make this art to remind and reflect on nature and the precariousness of this time. I consider myself an eco-feminist but really this is not an issue of sex; it is a human disaster and I am fortunate to be in a position that I can make art and share my ideas. I do hope my intentions are felt through my pieces.
Massachusetts Medicinals, 2018
stoneware
14 x 10 x 3.5”
Courtesy of the artist
Torso 1, 2019
ceramic
10.5 x 8 x 8”
Courtesy of the artist
When it comes to my ceramic work, I am a process worker. I have been hand stretching clay for 35 years from cylinders that I make three different ways. My work, for the most part, is about design element (form) and texture. This piece is part of a general series in which at various points in the stretched form, I “pinch” the form using a piece of cord which, depending on the thickness of the clay wall, can tear or fold in some places along the pinch line. The clay in this form has decomposed granite wedged into the clay body which, after being stretched into its pre “pinched” shape, gives a light somewhat pock marked and bumpy quality to the surface. This piece, because of the purposeful angle of the “pinch” in my view gives it a dancing torso look. I then sprayed a white slip over the piece before it was bisque fired. The finish on the piece is achieved by erasing a black stain (that covered the entire form) from the body and spraying a light coating of a frit, then fired to cone 2 in an electric kiln.
Detail
Saint Sebastian reinterpreted as a Trans Man is the perfect reflection for what I see happening to Queers in the United States. The arrows of Rome that nearly took Sebastian the first time are no different than the contemporary arrows of hate and transphobia that permeate US Christianity today. The violent reaction to Sebastian’s Christianity is no less shameful than violence enacted on Queer peoples by self-claimed U.S. Christians. What is miraculous, is that we –the odd, different, and strange– continue to get up and to thrive.
Trans Sebastian is watercolor, ink, metal foil, and printed paper fragments on paper. There are thirteen arrows piercing Sebastian in the image, echoing our American past and highlighting what the artist perceives as a sacred Queer number representative of change (13 or 1+3=4). The strips of paper contain fragments from suicide notes and published studies on Trangender mortality. The setting is local to the Los Angeles area, within Santa Clarita. Sebastian is depicted in a tin-based silver foil.
Trans Sebastian, 2018
watercolor, ink, marker, and metal foil
40.5 x 35”
Courtesy of the artist
Anyone who works in clay is confronted with a multitude of possibilities. Complexity and surprise are built into the medium, the process, and the technology. Take one purposeful step down an artistic path, and you’re immediately face to face with a crossroads that wasn’t on your mental GPS. Should you keep going straight–or, what the hell, wouldn’t it be more fun to turn left or right and see what you run into? Exploring the unexpected side roads has always appealed to me. It’s like going on a walkabout. As a teacher, I always say to students: “Try it and see what happens.” This is my own artistic mantra.
When I was recovering from cancer I turned to painting and drawing on paper-clay slabs. The method I developed for making the slabs, the printing, and painting were relatively simple, allowing me to continue exploring. Baby Matrix #1 is an exploration of textures with a juxtaposition of circles and one small floating baby.
Baby Matrix #1, 2019
white stoneware Paperclay, cone 06-fired
20.5 x 17.5 x .25”
Courtesy of the artist
My work draws upon the observation, invention, and integration of details from the natural and built environment. Like the 18th century tradition of ruins in Italian art, I express the passage of time, invoke longing and the pathos of things forgotten, but from a magnified perspective. I create compositions with natural and industrial fragments of the neighborhoods that surround my Philadelphia studio. Using light and shade, I convey the trace of a previous moment. Images of living plants, such as thick beds of locust beans or clematis prospering in urban lots, express the seemingly indestructible perseverance of nature.
My studio practice embraces new technologies and experimental approaches as well as traditional conceptions of expert print quality. In prints that explore the fusion of natural and artificial, I invent new means of integrating traditional and contemporary methods including etching, mezzotint, photogravure, photo polymer, digital photography, photo-laser relief, and intaglio printing from natural found materials. Layering textures and techniques, I explore the generative fusion of real and imaginary worlds. Most recently, I am translating small-scale photogravure ideas and processes into monumental, hand-printed laser woodcuts. I strive to produce work that speaks with authority using mysterious and subtle effects of the medium.
Second Growth, 2018
woodblock on Kitakata
48 x 50“
Courtesy of the artist
Grandfather, 2018
ink on panel
60 x 37 x 2”
Courtesy of the artist
This is a portrait of my grandfather (left) drawn from a photograph taken by Dorothea Lange when she was commissioned to photograph Japanese Americans being interned during the start of the US Entry into World War II. This photo was taken in San Francisco as my grandfather and his family were waiting to board a bus for an internment camp in Utah.
The words used to make the marks that compose this portrait are the text from Executive Order 9066, which was an Executive Order signed by FDR that established military areas excluding those of Japanese descent and establishing the internment camps away from the West Coast.
Manzanar, 2018
ink on panel
36 x 48 x 2”
Courtesy of the artist
The intent of this portrait (above right) is to portray individuals as the embodiment of strength and pride standing in defiance to the actions of oppression and fear by a power against them. With the current social and political environment and the recent acts that repeat past mistakes I am attempting to view historic events in the context of the contemporary climate.
I reference the text from government documents and communications and used the words as my mark to render each person with the very words that affect them. Using the word in the formation of the portraits does not label or define the subject by the words used, but instead they are blended together, blurred and transformed from a label to a broader gesture that defines a new visual standard of vitality and beauty.
This is a piece based on a photo taken by Toyo Miyatake. He was a Japanese-American photographer who snuck a lens and made a camera in Manzanar, an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.
The text is Executive Order 9066 and 9102. 9066 put the Japanese Americans into the camps and 9102 established the War Authority who oversaw the camps.
In mid-spring in Japan, I found the Nanohana-like master plants under the warm sunshine. Beside the field, one cherry blossom stood. Both symbolize spring and the brightness of life. I was inspired by the Nanohana and cherry blossoms representing the warmth and light of life.
Dream in Spring, 2018
printmaking linocut
reduction 24 x 24”
Courtesy of the artist
In Sakura, Sakura, I bear witness to the wonderful interplay of tranquil time and mellow light, which had coordinated full blossom of Sakura over the floating swan boats on a local lake. It captured an eagerly-awaited moment of spring beauty of Japan after a long cold winter.
Sakura, Sakura, 2018 linocut linocut reduction print
35 x 21”
Courtesy of the artist
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Ishikawa
Ishii
Ida
Hricko
Horn
Henisey
Hendrickson
Heidenger
Hardy
Halli
Gray
Goudy
Goro-Rapoport
Glickman
Giusti-Dillon
Fitzgerald
Farkas
Eaton
Do
Diesing
Daube
Crane
Corinne
Collins
Cohen
Ciccone
Christensen
Chesney
Chen
Chaput
Butler
Burke
Brugger
Bruckman
Broekelschen
Brodnick
Bowman
Bonilla
Bondarenko
Blackburn
Binghamfreeman
Berg
Benzamin-Miki
Bennett
Basford
Barón
Barkus
Bada Maloney
Baczek
Avery
Arriaga
Ink & Clay 44
Kellogg University Art Gallery, Cal Poly Pomona
August 22 - November 21, 2019
© 2019 Kellogg University Art Gallery, Cal Poly Pomona
The artworks filmed, photographed and presented herein were used courtesy of each
participating artist, with their individual permission.
Some images used in the logo design and graphics may be from a
previous year's competition.
Copyright of all artwork used or reproduced is owned by each individual artist
and cannot be copied or reproduced without each artist's individual permission.
