Bowls and Vessels Series

The bowl as a form has been important to me for many years. A bowl is a container, a Vessel.

The word vessel is interesting because it always is about life. A blood vessel, the body is the vessel of the Soul, a ship is a vessel tossed on the sea. A vessel always contains or implies life. That is part of my interest in the bowl. So my bowls are vessels.

In French philosophy, a big question has been “Is it the Inside or the Outside?”. Basket Makers and Potters are very concerned with this issue, and they usually insist of photographs of their work at an angle that shows both. In metals, the transition from inside to outside is very important.

Process and the nature of the material inspires me.

My work is about drawing, about mark making with material and the tension between nature and structure. Allowing the materials to do the work, letting nature show in the work lends it a ‘beauty’ that I cannot easily reach by forcing form onto the material. The marks of process are compositional elements.

My vessels are not necessarily functional. You can put things in them, but as many are patinated (though heavily sealed with non-reactive sealants) are more about the form of vessel than about eating from. Presentation of foodstuffs is fine.