These pieces stemmed from a last minute offer for a solo exhibition at the Bridgewater Gallery in Virginia. All of my other work was previously committed so I completed 30 assemblages in 20 days. Some of them are actually good and I have continued making these off and on ever since.
Multimedia assemblage with original ceramic, wood working and watercolor. $450.00 Sold.
Multimedia assemblage. 57"x 29"x10". $750.00
A close up.
Apx. 43"x13"x6". $450.00
Sold.
Mixed media assemblage. $150.00
Mixed media assemblage. $135.00
Mixed media assemblage. $150.00
Sold.
Sold.
$85.00
$150.00
Sold.
Sold.
$150.00
$150.00
Sold.
Sold.
Sold.
$125.00
$65.00
Sold.
$135.00
$65.00
Vintage postcards, copper pipe and piano keys.
These are earlier pieces of mine made in terra cotta with terra sigillata on the outside and glaze on the inside. Everything is built dried, surface treated, glazed and then fired one time to 1945 F. Beautiful surfaces and fun and whimsical play with a lot of these pieces.
Apx. 23" Tall. $550.00 A beautiful piece. Even more so in person - the picture doesn't do it justice.
Terra cotta tea pot with painted underglaze design. The other side has a vulture that you have to look for.
Terra cotta with underglaze painting. The vutures head is by the spout and the body wraps down the face. A poor picture of a beautiful piece. At least I thought so.
Terra cotta with terra sigilatta and carved design.
Terra cotta, glaze and burnished terra sigilatta. 14” Tall
Tea service with creamer, sugar, tea cups, nesting teapot and trivets.
These are some of my newer pieces in porcelain. Some incorporate copper, gold or silver leaf. Others incorporate my pen and ink drawings, and still others incorporate both.
Porcelain with fired ink transfer. 19" Tall. $365.00
Side 2 of 3.
All three sides shown here.
A sweet little porcelain cup with a funky image fired in place and some copper leaf just to make it a bit more refined.
Porcelain with original ink drawings fired into the surface. Copper leaf. Approximately 9" tall. $295.00
Porcelain tea service. Apx. 6" tall. $165.00
20" Tall - 3 Pieces. Porcelain, fired ink renderings, copper gilt. $395.00
8" Tall. Porcelain with fired ink renderings and silver gilt. $125.00
Apx. 18" Tall. Porcelain with fired ink renderings and gilding. $235.00
Porcelain with fired ink rendering and copper gilt. 18" Tall. $295.00
Porcelain with original fired image transfer and silver leaf. 16" Tall. $235.00
$295.00
Porcelain with copper gilding. Apx. 16" Tall. $295.00
Sold.
$125.00
Porcelain Jar. 7" Tall. $65.00
7" Tall. Turquoise glaze with copper gilding. The finial holds rings and the jar necklaces.
Porcelain with fired original ink renderings and gold gilding. Apx. 6" tall. $85.00
Porcelain with original ink renderings fired in place and both copper and gold gilding. Apx. 8" tall. $95.00
Porcelain with gold and copper leaf.
Porcelain with gold and copper leaf.
Porcelain with Chun glaze and copper leaf.
Porcelain with Ox Blood glaze.
Porcelain with Chun glaze. 6 inches tall.
Porcelain with modified Ox Blood glaze.
Porcelain with copper leaf. 22 inches tall.
Porcelain with original drawing in fired transfer and gold leaf.
Porcelain fired to 2300 Fahrenheit. 4” tall
Porcelain, original art fired transfer and copper leaf. 4” Tall.
Porcelain with Copper Lichen glaze. 9” x 4”
Porcelain, modified fired transfer, gold leaf. 9” x 5”
Porcelain with Shaner’s Red glaze. 5” Tall.
4” tall.
Thrown, disassembled and reassembled porcelain with Copper glaze.
This is one of the first pieces I have done using what is a new process to me. Google it for specifics. Very intersting and dynamic process. 10” Tall.
Every now and then I set up a new problem or challenge for myself. As I become bored or distracted with current projects this is a good way to get myself going again. This "problem" involved challenging myself to explore and discover the notion of "table". What are they, why are they, and how can I make them into something slightly different. I played with the idea of chairs as well. I started these tables in 2001 and built my first 20 tables in 30 days. I have designed and built another 20 or so over the years. I hope you enjoy. (Some of the images are old and blury - my apologies.)
Laminated plywood barstool with acrylic paints. The back has three burning matchsticks and the seat has a group of four burning parrots. $450.00
The back side.
Laminated plywood and acrylic. Sold.
Third view. Commissions welcome.
Laminated plywood and acrylic. Sold. Commissions welcome.
Sold. Commissions welcome.
Laminated plywood and acrylic barstool. $450.00 Sold. Commissions welcome.
The backside. Sold
Upright piano converted into a bench with hinged storage underneath. $250.00
Beautiful solid ceramic stoneware top, singlfired, white porcelain tile over substructure, terra cotta uprights with faux tortoise shell surface treatment. Apx. 7 feet long and 4 feet tall.
Terra Cotta sink and pedestal.
Porcelain sink and counter with copper and chrome plumbing.
Porcelain sink stand, countertop and basin.
A bad photo of a beautiful table. Porcelain rubble pattern tile with oak framing and thinset texture in uprights. Apx. 5 feet long.
This is a second photo, sent to me by the owner, of a hall table that I built in 2017. Triangulated porcelain tile with copper glaze, Oak skirting with thinset mortar on the uprights.
This was a commissioned piece that I built in Alexandria, Virginia. It was 12 feet long by 3 feet wide with three 150 Pound removable legs that I cast from a form that I built. A fun project.
This was the very first table that I built and the first one I sold. It was a beautiful piece with terra cotta uprights, framed and tiled decorative sections, rubble pattern stoneware tile on top and framed out entirely in repurposed Mahogany that I salved from a rennovated mansion just outside of Washington, D.C. I loved this table. It now sits in the massive front entry of another mansion in the Shennendoah Valley of Virginia. Appropriate. The pieces on top were some of my earlier works and the one in the center, the soup toureen with howling-dog finials, was featured in the book Ceramic Design: Form and Function.
This photo is from my MFA exhibition at James Madison University. It is a 10’x3’ solid White Oak table with six legs. I designed the 12 high back chairs, also constructed from White Oak.
I built this sink for a tiny bathroom in an 1847 school house in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. The bathroom was incrediby tiny so I took out the old vanity and designed this sink. There is a CDX substructure under the stoneware tile for the sink support and backspash. The basin is porcelain with open chrome and copper plumbing. It was really a beautiful sink.
The stacked pieces started years ago when I had a solo exhibition at Emory and Henry University in Southern Virginia. I wanted a new body of work to exhibit and these pieces came from an installation that I carried out there. The photos are old so some of the pieces can't be seen clearly, but you should get the general idea. My tallest piece, of which I have no remaining photographs, was a 14 foot tall free stack (no interior or exterior supports). I exhibited it only once and then never put it up again. I've done about 16 of these pieces. The "bomb" pieces were an earlier and shorter body of work which were based on personal narratives from my youth.
All of these pieces explored stories of my childhood and young adult years. Some of the themes are obvious. Other's not so much.
This was an archway that 6 of my sculpture students and I built and installed on the campus of St. Stephen's, St. Agnes School in Alexandria, Virginia. It was to be the entrance for a larger project which I never completed. I left for a new position elsewhere. We used apx. 3000 pounds of clay and the capstone was about 600 of that. Everything was built horizontally on big rolling tables. There were 5 separate elements. Two sides for each upright (I don't have pictures of the back), and the top piece. Everything was built as a solid unit, cut into large 3D tiles, glazed, fired, and then reassembled over a steel sub-support. It was a great project to do.
Terra cotta fountain with cascading bowls. Apx. 3 feet tall.
This was a commisioned piece that took over 1000 pound of concrete to build and several hundred individual tiles. It is hard to see but there is a carved grapevine design in the upright tile. The most challenging part to building this was designing casting cages strong enough to hold the concrete while it was setting and yet still removable. It was cast in two sections, the base and basin and the upright section. They are interlocking with rebar. What a wonderfully fun chore!
I built this countertop as one giant piece over a form I designed. I then cut it into sections, glazed it, single fired it to cone 6 and then reassembled it over a cdx substructure. I converted all the cabinets into an open sliding design, reworked the archway and made custom tile for the backsplash. You can see that the counter itself was built with a small backsplash and front apron. Great project.
I am older and uglier now. And I no longer have the moustache.
These are images of multimedia installations that I carried out either on my own or with the collaboration of my students. Some installations have involved humans and movement. Others not so much. For those of you unfamiliar, an installation is, loosely, an artistic event which involves radically changing an existing environment into something different and artistically significant.
These photos are from my MFA graduate exhibition at James Madison University where I also taught courses in 3D Design. I chose to do an installation rather than a more traditional exhibition of pots on pedestals. There is a long conceptual idea behind this and subsequent installations which I wont go into for the sake of expediency. All of the furniture, pots, serving dishes etc. are my of my own design and crafted by me. In addition to my actual work, there was also a lighting element to this piece, as well as a sound track of vintage music with sounds of humanity periodically dubbed in. I also boiled clove in the room for a week prior to the opening. The setting for 12 is significant.
This was an installation that I carried out with my 3D Design students at James Madison University when I as teaching there and working on my MFA in ceramics. Each student made a plaster cast of a shoe, boot, or pump and then did 20 adobe press molds of their casting. We then arranged them in a large open space in front of the main administration building. That night it snowed about 10 inches and each shoe became a mound of snow. The next day they dissolved and became 1240 individual mounds of mud. The administration was not a happy camper and it took a crew of workers to clean it all up. In my defense, I didn't know it was going to snow. Unfortunately, I did not think to take images of the work under snow. It was beautiful though. Really beautiful.
This was a temporary installation involving 3D Design students from James Madison University involving humans, mannequins, and a silent run around the campus. At the moment I took this picture I heard uproarious laughter coming from a roof top above us. When I looked up I saw a group of construction workers lined up along a rooftop of a new building. It was beautiful.
99 Blood bags, wheat bran, butcher smocks, unfired porcelain bowls, unfired clay toys, angels and spoons. Press molds of children's faces. A slow drip of lamb's blood and water dissolved away the faces and bowls and soaked into the wheat bran and butcher smocks.
This was an installation that I carried out at Emory and Henry University somewhere around 2001. I used bisque fired porcelain tile to lay out a virtual coastline of the country Turkey. The other half of the floor was covered in wheat bran. In groups of seven I hung butcher smocks which were white, dyed black, or dyed red in lambs blood. Each group hung seven feet off the floor. Each of the sculptural pieces were free stacks (no central support) of ceramic elements. They represented baptismal fonts and were placed where the original 7 churches identified in the biblical book of Revelation once stood. John the Revelator was marooned on the Isle of Patmos and had written personal letters to each church. These letters are in the book of Revelation. Visitors to the show were forced to walk on the tile to enter the room and the tiles broke and snapped under foot. It created a precarious feeling. This was another of my "But You Do Not Realize" installations.
Every now and then I get out a good pen and start drawing. I rarely lay anything out in advance and all my mistakes have to be dealt with as I draw in ink. It's better that way. It makes me think more. The great thing about drawings is that they are so darn flat and easy to move. I should have gone in a different direction in life.