Creative Forms, Wheel Thrown

To gain a perfect relation of idea, form, material and technique is the ultimate goal. Only if these elements are related successfully does the artist feel that he has made a significant statement. It is impossible for every form to combine all of these elements for there may be circumstances that will limit one or more from functioning properly. Only when a harmony of these elements has been reached does the artist feel that he has imparted a significant part of himself in his work. This artist, over a period of six years, has devoted a large amount of time to the medium of clay and the construction of forms made of clay, glaze, and other materials. And in the last year and a half he has devoted all of his creative efforts to thrown forms. He feels that this technique is the best for self expression. In no other media could this artist find a more spontaneous relationship between himself and the medium. Clay, thrown on the potters wheel, is the nearly perfect means of expressing significant forms. Taking a mass of basically formless matter, and forming it into a creative form is challenging and sometimes rewarding. The technique alone, is not of prime importance, but its relationship of the artist, to his material is significant in forming ideas. There must be a statement in each form, for without it, the form becomes only a shape with a shallow purpose. But to say that each form the artist creates is his complete statement would be untrue. For there are so many facets to the personality of the artist that it would be impossible to combine all of them into one form. This thesis is only a momentary glance at the forms that the artist is creating, for there is the ever present search for new forms of expression and techniques that he is so far unable to create