The work on this site consists of forms that follow developments and changes
in the way I approach my creative process. For years now I have been working
with Raku—using low fire clay and glazes to make fairly simple round forms
and glazing them with imagery and patterns using bright colors and a textured
surface. Some of my most recent pieces in this manner are exhibited here with
birds and fish moving across curved surfaces of color and crackled texture.
During my sabbatical last fall and winter, I chose to explore forms in clay
that had different surfaces than my Raku pots. Concentrating on the shapes specifically
(without imagery on the surface) and either carving and distorting or paddling
and altering the wheel thrown forms I attempted to create a more active and
distinctly different vessel shape that those of my earlier work. My inspiration
for these pieces derived from three different sources—wine jars, jugs
and round shapes.
I looked at old wine jars/serving vessels during a trip to Italy a few summers
ago and I am still drawing ideas from that time. Etruscan and Early Roman pots
initiated an investigation and play with variations on these forms as a theme.
Pouring shapes turned into bottle forms and basket forms in my drawings and
became more playful as my process progressed (or digressed). Each piece suggested
something else and therefore acted as a Muse—an inspiration to later work.
In pondering traditions of serving vessels, I looked back at early Minoan pots--specifically
Kamares Ware Jugs which I always think of as a shape of pot related to other
jug styles -- including more recent pots like Early American whiskey and molasses
jugs. The pot exhibited here is a tribute to the inspiration and shear beauty
of those pots made in Crete in 2000 B.C.
Many of the forms I have enjoyed making for years are large round pots—pieces
whose lineage for me comes from Japanese and Korean storage jars. These shapes
have a surface that speaks of a potential canvas—an are forms that beg
for color while offering themselves to mark making and distortion. My Raku pots
are decorated with shapes and images, utilizing color and texture, that are
somewhat flat and graphic compared to the Big Round forms exhibited here. Intentional
marks, scraffito and an emphasis on the soft nature of wet clay allow these
pots to interact with the stoneware glaze and thus create a subtle dialogue
between form and surface.
While there is a wide variety of work in this exhibition that may seem somewhat
disjointed, there was a flow to the development of each group of pots represented
here. One shape or style led to another, one glazed surface suggested other
color and textural change, and manipulated and altered work was inspired by
the muse in pots made earlier.
BOB CHANCE
March 2004