Meshes
I started making this series of forms almost 15 years ago, during a summer residency at the Archie Bray Foundation. I had begun working with digital technology and was interested in the relationships between forms, marks, and textures made by machines and hands.
These forms are made by coil building and then pinching a volume while following the rule that the surface can only be made from triangles. I think of them as a kind of analog version of a low-res 3D mesh. They are a range of sizes, the largest around 4 feet tall. Over time they have also become flatter – – like an envelope – only about 10″ deep.
In the last few years the surface glazing has become more elaborate. I don’t remember exactly the sequence of ideas but I’m sure the surface is inspired both by the broken tile work of Jim Melchert, and the incredible surface play between geometric pattern and glaze melt in the work of Linda Sikora.
The forms emerge from the rules of making and the constraints and qualities of clay and glaze. They are volumes working to understand the nature of their own surface.
