Hand built pottery

What I have done in this representative body of hand built pottery is to extend myself beyond the mere technical proficiencies to respond wholly to pottery in my own personal way. I see ray work as much an experience in (seeing, touching, shaping, firing) responding to clay with its rich earthly colors, its contrasting smoothness and coarseness, its pliableness, and bond-shaping characteristics, as I do to the attention centered in the constructing of the pieces. Therefore, I chose at the outset to dig, grind and mix the clays myself. These pieces of pottery reflect the interest I have in the natural beauty of the clay itself. Therefore, I intentionally did not cover the surface with an overall glaze to cover up the clay body. I feel the clay's natural color and texture are an important and worthwhile area of interest to explore. In some cases clay slip and/or oxides were applied as an extension of painting, responsive to shape, color and surface volume with the unity of the piece in mind. Slip being once applied will upon drying and firing become part of the clay body itself, as in essence it is clay applied to clay. The forms I chose to build with ray hands developed from the technique of adding and extending clay outward and upward— equivalent to growing. Therefore, most of the basic hand building methods were employed: pinch, coil, slab and paddling. The shapes that grew are basically simple, but make allowances for variations with clay colorations, surface treatment and texture