Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, Private Collection, 24”x18”x 9”, 2012. These hand constructed, glazed ceramic urns are reliquaries, secret hideaways, treasure boxes, memory caches, totemic pyramids, and finally, resting places.
Side View. Multiple compartments enclose the ashes and artifacts of the individuals resting within. The larger urns can contain the ashes of two people who share the larger, lower, interconnected compartments.
Open view showing multiple interior compartments. These interior chambers have perforated screens so the ashes can mingle over time. The mid-level compartment holds fired, full-color, personal ceramic photographs, chosen by the users. The small, upper compartment is for more personal items, such as a lock of hair, jewelry, or amulets.
Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, Private Collection, 24”x18”x 9”, 2014. Interior walls can be inscribed with handwritten, personal messages drawn into the raw clay during the construction process - letters in a bottle, thrown into the sea of time. The shapes are chosen for their archetypal references to burial rituals of the past.
Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, Private Collection, 24”x18”x 9”, 2013. My concept is to unite the ancient and permanent medium of ceramics with the contemporary and transient medium of digital photography to address questions of temporality and existence in this digital age. Prices available on request.
Urn, Earthenware with hand painted underglaze & overglaze photo decals. 15” x 9” x 3”, 2013. This Urn in the shape of a digital tablet speaks to the similarity of microcircuitry and DNA. Here motherboards surround chromosomes while a digital eye returns the gaze of the viewer.
Pattern Detail. The upper section is a photo decal image of a DNA molecule under the electron microscope. The bottom section is hand painted pixellated version of the same DNA molecule.
Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, Private Collection, 18”x 11”x 3”, 2021 . The Zoomerika series uses the visual language of our brave, new, digital world to document this year of disconnected communication. The digital screens that have ‘protected’ us and allowed us to stay in communication during the pandemic also have separated us.
Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, Private Collection, 18”x 11”x 3”, 2021 .
Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, Private Collection, 18”x 11”x 3”, 2021 . The Zoomerika series uses the visual language of our brave, new, digital world to document this year of disconnected communication. Just as the woman at the center reaches out to touch the screen finds no real human contact, so too have we been isolated in our digital silos.
Urn, Earthenware with photo decals. 10” x 9” x4”. 2018. Collection of Richard Saiz. This urn was commissioned by documentary film maker Richard Saiz for his mother Esther Saiz, who recently passed away. The images chosen include Esther as a young woman surrounded by a pattern of maize taken from a Mayan stela, reflecting Esther’s Mexican heritage. The reverse side is fully illustrated as well, with her image within the score of one of her favorite songs, La Barca. She was a gifted singer and bon vivant who loved traveling, especially to her favorite city, New York!
Urn, hand built earthenware with hand painted underglaze and overglaze decal imagery, 14” x 10” x 5”, 2015. Depiction of the human figure has been a constant in the history of ceramics. We’ve always liked a good selfie! From Greek amphora to Mayan cylinder vessels to majolica istoriato platters, potters have used the techniques and cultural beliefs of their time to document the stories of their lives. Likewise, in this series of urns, I use the techniques and technologies of the present: medical scans, infrared thermography, microcircuitry and PhotoShop, to depict the human form on the ceramic canvas in a way never before possible.
Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, Private Collection, 15”x10”x5”, 2015. As a potter, a form that has always inspired me is the urn. From our earliest times potters have created vessels to accompany burial rituals. What burial rituals do we now embrace? This urn, one of my first using digital imagery, can be used to hold the ashes of a loved one or exist purely as art. We are in a dance with technology. In a trance with technology. Drawn to it like Icarus to the sun. This series of work explores the seductive pull of technology.
Pair of Urns, Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, each 15”x10”x5”, 2013.
Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, each 15”x10”x5”, 2013. The elusive interface of human and machine has intrigued me for many years. These two cups, my first forays into exploring the man/machine interface began the Digital Man series. These cups employ medical imaging technologies, such as CT and MRI scans, as a new way to ‘see’ the human body through a kind of video pointillism.
BINARY MAN, Urn, Earthenware with underglazes and overglaze photo decals, 10"x8"x4", 2017, Collection of the artist.
Pattern detail. The image created in Photoshop and printed as a ceramic overglaze decal. The right side is hand painted underglaze on pixelated surface.
Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, 14”x10”x 5”, 2014. The imagery on this urn speaks to the similiarity in function of analog DNA and digital microcircuitry in executing programs. DNA encodes the instructions for protein/enzyme production. Microcircuitry executes software programming instructions. The Digital Man series explores the interface of machine and human intelligence.
Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, 14”x10”x 5”, 2014. These smaller urns are designed for containing a portion of the deceased ashes, with the rest being scattered in favorite locations. Images can be customized in consultation with the client.
PATTERN DETAIL, Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Overglaze, 14”x10”x 5”, 2014. Images are created in PhotoShop allowing for a preview of colors and effects, something rare in ceramics. Fired overglaze decal image colors are very close to those I see on the computer while working up a design. With this I can show the client what the final piece is going to look like before the project is started.
PATTERN DETAIL, Urn, Earthenware,Underglaze and Photo Decal Overglaze, 14”x10”x5”, 2015.
Pattern Detail, Urn, Earthenware,Underglaze and Photo Decal Overglaze, 14”x10”x5”, 2015
Urn, Earthenware with Underglazes and Photo Decal Oveglazes, 9”x9”x4”, 2018. The imagery on this series of urns represents the headlong rush to merge human and machine intelligence. We are in a love affair with technology with little concern for the profound consequences sure to follow.