This began with fingernails making marks in refractory bricks from an old kiln. A fascination with how soft yet so strong this material is. That quickly moved into making marks with old nails, hacksaw blades, and the Dremel. Marks turning into symbols, symbols coming together making stories, stories from patterns around me spurring thoughts and emotions coming through me, now frozen forever in these bricks.
Once glazed, the firing in the kiln bonded them together, forming a three-dimensional sculpture. Eventually, when I ran out of old bricks, the work transitioned into my first love, clay, and these bricks started to climb the walls. I knew these stories in patterns had to continue.
So became The Refractory Series.
A grouping of celestial bodies.
Nishimura is a comet that visited us in August and September of 2023. I like to thing that since stoneware has such a long shelf-life, maybe this piece will still be around when it visits us again in 431 years.
