About

Discovering Elegance

The purpose of my work is to create porcelain objects that empower the user, activities, and environment in appreciation of the art of everyday life.

My work is spiritually based. By “spiritual” I do not mean religious. I refer rather to the ability of objects to provoke wakefulness, ignite true feeling and enter the user into the depth of perception replete with luminosity, richness and power. An aesthetic aim is to invite luminosity, and “yun.” Yun is literally an ochre-like substance found in the stream beds of Tibet. More broadly, yun can refer to objects or places exuding an “enriching presence”: physical objects with spiritual presence.

The work is about elegance - not as commodity, but as empowerment. When you turn up the lights on elegance, you get splendidness. Perceptual, non-conceptual art has power to provoke direct, immediate openness – nowness. Stop the thinking mind. Jump into the ocean of enriching presence that is this world. Resonate with the viewer’s innate richness and un-fabricated awareness – the luminosity within perception.

Space, luminosity and enriching presence guide composition. Luminosity arises through contrast - space and image rub together to produce luminosity, form and space copulating. Luminous porcelains, celadon, contrast of foreground/background of gold, silver and effervescent media build contrast and patina.

Historical Context, Contemporary Expression

Immersion in the media has evolved personal interpretations of traditional materials, used in service to my own creative purpose and expression for a Western usage and context. Media include Western precious and semi-precious metals (24 Roman and German golds, silver and copper lustre) and the porcelain decorative traditions of Jingdezhen, the renowned porcelain centre of China: underglaze blue and white (quinhua), over-glaze enamels (gucai, fencai and xincai) and celadon carving. All of the work is wheel-thrown or hand-built and hand-painted in its entirety, featuring original icons with layered symbolic resonance. I apply hand-ground media with fine brushes to draw out the luminosity of the media in textile-like surfaces and patina.

Ritual Objects

It is said that nature creates the ceremonies and we tune to them with rites. The purpose of ritual is to capture the intangible magic of the phenomenal world and make it visible and palatable. Rituals can focus attention to ordinary activities that we may miss in the haste of life - fleeting beauty in a moment, like the season at its height. Rituals and their objects discipline attention gently in nowness - being present. Ritual objects guide and empower the activity and accrue power through use. All daily activities are ritual activities when their meaning and potency is distilled and appreciated.

One of a kind functional vessels can point the user toward the poignancy of daily rituals, such a drinking a cup of tea. Or they can pursue a particular kind of refined beauty to stand alone in the tradition of “art as vessel” in the appreciation of the art of everyday life. My work serves a Western lifestyle in presenting food or flowers, hosting a dinner party or uplifting environments of daily living.

Hand Painting gold line on Luminosity Vase. This piece required 7 firings.

Brush application of water-based gucai over-glaze media on Vase with Flower Medallions; 6 firings.