An important aspect of artmaking for me are process marks. In making functional vessels, I want the user to see the hands of the maker at work with the clay. I try to reflect the soft material that fired ware was once made from – clay is a moldable material, good for smearing and forming. In the work that I have been recently doing, I have been keeping the marks of process and hands on the piece, using them to enhance the aesthetic and the value of the vessel.

This cup was handbuilt using a press-mold and was then trimmed on the wheel. It was decorated with slip and underglazes, then had images defined using sgraffito techniques. It was bisque fired, covered in a glaze coat and then fired again.

The clay used is a terracotta red earthenware to cone 04.

Chapter One:

When I see myself, it is as a small being. A small being destined for destruction at the hands of the almighty one, the one of utmost importance, it is the one that will dictate my place in life. I am a bee. I am a drone to this one. It is doom, a monotonous task to be so small and insignificant to have your importance relegated to the side as that one and only claims you. For a bee this pillar of power is the queen, for people like protesters it is the government. Who is to say if bees are content with this position of lowly servitude? We know through news barrages and pointless internet groupings that people are not content with this position. We know from the dejected faces of the crowds as they move along the streets that they are not content. They hate it, they refuse it, they wish to shake the roles; the cages that have been placed around them.

Yes, when I see myself, I see a bee. Doomed to the worship of one, but it isn’t one, it has never been that way. That’s the difference between us and bees, we see many points of worship in everyday life, and these points do not even have to be living. It can be money or wires…But for me, it has always been people. I have been doomed to be a slave to others, the important ones. Finding myself flittering back and forth to meet the needs of the people I cross, for the benefit of them, always for them. Like the drone and the queen bee. The difference between me, the protesters, and all other refusing beings is that I open my mind and arms and shout, “Come do what you may, scar my body and mind and let me smile in knowing I was in your thoughts for that brief instance!”

Yes, when I see myself, I see a bee.

Below is a link to the article that I wrote in the magazine. Since this is art-time and not story-time, I will leave it at your discretion if you would enjoy reading it. It is entitled Outside the Hops and explores the hops plant and it’s relationship with people, examining it’s significance as a medicinal herb, it’s taxonomy and it’s importance within the history of brewing. Page 1 Page 2

It is THE HORSE.

“Excuse me, but you ruined my outfit. Please get a room, I was laughing so hard I spilled beer all over my pants.”

Disposable plastic cups

Disposable encouters

Disposeable impressions

Disposable chances

Disposable lovers

Disposable culture

Dispose of each-other?

Although the evening took me over, despite the chemistry within my blood, don’t forget what I told you. Because for a night you took me over, and I mean everything that I said.

Big Dude is a replication of a Teotihuacan Censer from Mexico – I made him for a historical assignment at school. He took me 7 weeks to make including building all the sprigs and casting them in plaster in order to make the process authentic.

He was completely hand built from a clay recipe that I fortified and mixed myself. Once he was put together he was sprayed with a rutile wash and painted with a variety of other oxides for colour variation.

He was fired at Cone 1 in a reduction atmosphere with wood added to the kiln during high temperatures for flashing. Afterwards he was sandblasted to make him look worn and aged.

He stands just under 3 feet tall.