College was a special journey which established a strong foundation for what would be a very exciting path that my life took once I finished my formal education. Ive met people from all walks of life who have had a clear impact in the direction my art has taken; traveled to places that changed the way I see the world. So much has happened since the end of college that it will be difficult to digest and post it all in its entirety or in proper order of occurrence. So I’ll tell the story through the art that came out of those experiences. Art which took many different forms. For those of you who do not know me or my past, a summary page will be created; a prelude to help give background, context, and meaning to the art which came from the quagmire that is my mind

Currently…

The work that is coming out of the kiln these days can be considered a mature embodiment of the aesthetic pursued in college. A distinct marriage of rigid and organic elements which create a ceramic form with both tension and harmony present in its composition contained in a vessel. The path to this mature body of work started at the tail end of college when I was still in a setting that required and forced progress instead of allowing for the natural flow of development to take its course. But then again, that’s what college is designed to do, it pushes you so that you cram decades worth of apprenticeship experience into 4 short years. Graduating from college allowed me to disconnect from that environment and it afforded my mind time to explore at it’s own pace. I never stopped creating art, the way I expressed varied wildly due to my training and background in a multitude of mediums. So the art that came between the end of college and my current work was not always in clay and was not always an expression of the dichotomous composition of my current work. Lets just say, shit got weird.

The time spent away from academia was spent having fun, exploring my capabilities and putting them to use, mostly in mischievous ways. Having fun, after all, is the main driver of creative breakthroughs whether you’re at an intersection, dead end, road block, or trying to find your bearings. That’s not a path that is easy to make it back from. A hiatus from discipline can lead to stagnation of your creativity, some lose it forever while others atrophy back to complacency because it’s fun. My discipline slipped while I was having fun but I made it back with more determination than when I had easy access to a studio and a creative environment.

Loss of Focus, Recalibration Needed.

After graduating college, I found myself with no access to a studio, materials, or any artistically inclined minds to speak about art with. I was stuck on a desert island devoid of any artistic substance. Finding a job was difficult for me due to some extenuating circumstances surrounding my ability to work. This meant that I did not have the luxury of making art like I used to. So I began riding my bike a lot with my sketchbook so I could sit and draw for a bit. I’ve always been a doodler drawing on whatever was in front of me to occupy time with something engaging and fultilling.

During this time I lost focus and fell from discipline. This is where the odd journey began. No one to guide me, no one to turn to when I couldn’t figure out a problem; the desert seemed endless so I simply sat down and gave up waiting for something or someone to rescue the creative mind within. I became complacent.