Most of these images are from my December, 2007, Review Board, where three faculty members review your semester's work for an hour.  I had produced a lot of work and made a point of setting everything up as if it was a gallery show.   These photos are mostly quick shots from the review room and far from wonderful - I will be updating them  as I  shoot better images.

April 2008 - these are no longer my most recent work, having been supplanted by the Spring 2008 page.  However, I believe I can't change the name of this page without deleting all the content, and it was too much of a struggle to build this page to do that.  Similarly, I have taken better images of these pieces, but don't want to take the time right now to upload them and rebuild the page.  If you should want to see other images of any work, use the Contact page.

Little Boxes - Greek Style
8 bisqueware structures with underglaze on 9 Raku fired bases

I had started out wanting to create a Greek village with a complex structure of passageways and houses, but soon realized this was beyond my developing ceramic skills.  I then thought of the song Little Boxes, written by  Malvina Reynolds and popularized by Pete Seeger, and decided to modularize my village to make the construction more manageable.  It lacks the complexity and mystery that I had initially desired, but I am very pleased with it and do plan to create additional Greek scenes.

Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky
Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

End of the Line
Terra cotta, basswood, branches and root, model rail

I made several terra cotta bases, one with a very specific use in mind, and two where I only had a general idea of what I wanted to do with it.  Since the bases were constructed about two weeks before I could use them, due to the kiln firing schedule, my ideas sometimes changed by the time I actually built on them.  My original plan here was to build a more or less realistic trestle across the whole gully.  As I started work I decided that would be boring and began to think about man / nature and that the distance between structure and chaos is often less than we like to believe.

Greek Courtyard
Stoneware with underglaze

This was the first Greek-inspired piece that I did, based on a photograph of a tiny courtyard in the magnificent book, Mediterranean Villages.  Although I had made a design sketch with rough dimensions, as I was very new to ceramics at the time I hadn't accounted for all the supporting structure I would need behind the scene, which caused construction to be a bit harrowing.

Coal Tipple
Terra Cotta, basswood, brass, branches

One of the sources that was mentioned to me were photographs of small Pennsylvania coal mines, or tipples, by Bernd and Hilda Becher, a well-known German couple who specialize in industrial motifs.  I had been aware of their images of large European industrial estates, but had not seen any of the coal mine photos, although became immediately excited by them when I borrowed a book from the school library.  These are small, independent ,and temporary mines built in the hills versus the huge, more permanent installations located next to a railway line in the valleys.  The coal is dumped into a bin by the tipple mechanism, then loaded into dump trucks for the journey to the railroad or local processor.  What I loved about these structures is their frequent gangly and rickety looking structure, very much like an old wooden roller coaster on the verge of collapse. 

Elevator #1
Glazed stoneware

A type of industrial structure that has always appealed to me is grain elevators, particularly what's known as a "country elevator", which is the older and smaller type found in small prairie communities.  Many of these were built of wood, although some were covered with corrugated metal panels as the years passed.  The basic geometric shapes and clean lines are what attract me to these buildings that so definitively follow the adage, "form follows function".

Industrial Estate
Glazed stoneware

I've always enjoyed industrial structures and this piece incorporates several industrial roof outlines.  It was built at the end of the semester and the last bisque firing was just days away, so I simply left it out on a shelf to dry instead of wrapping it in plastic for a longer and more gentle drying process, allowing the clay to adjust to the manipulation.  The work suffered a few cracks due to this.

Viewpoint
Terra Cotta, basswood

I had constructed this "wall" around the middle of the semester, but didn't build on it until the very end of the semester.  I had a general idea of what I wanted to do with it - more or less what you see, but procrastinated making a commitment to it for whatever reason.  When I built the wall I included some indents where I could later brace walkways and structures.  I hope to a very large work with this general approach, but will likely not use a ceramic base due to the size and weight.

Memorial to Fallen Birches
Birch Funfi, Branches, Basswood



These are fungi that only grow on dead birch trees, whether standing or fallen.  The bottom section is one of the largest of these that I have encountered.  They become quite dense when dry and I have considered carving on one.  The major impetus for this work is the historic Shell neon sign on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, near the B.U. Bridge.  It's been many years (decades?) since it was last illuminated, but is a protected landmark, as is the much more famous Citgo sign in Kenmore Square.

Renewal
Pine

This work has a lengthy history behind it.  The piece is similar to one I did in high school out of balsa, which was inspired by Henry Moore's Interior / Exterior figures.  In the fall of 2005 I did a small version in  bronze.  This is three feet tall and the largest wood carving I have done to date, and I also used some techniques new to me. 

The log was first rough-shaped using an electric chainsaw, after which I hollowed out the interior cavity using a Lancelot blade, which is a small (4" diameter) disk chainsaw that mounts on an angle grinder.  I had never used charring before, but wanted to try it and lit a fire of many small branches, which got somewhat out of control.  However, I've come to enjoy combining the intentional and accidental in my work.  I then carved the exterior with gouge and mallet.  The red is an oil paint-based stain, also a new material for me.  In this photo the interior element is also stained and has a yellowish appearance, but I have since painted it white.  This inner piece is suspended by two dowels, giving it the illusion of floating in the interior.