Although I've never been an official member of the Ceramics Department at the Tyler School of Art, it is one of my very favorite places to be and work. The faculty and students are so welcoming and talented. Pictured here are two kinds of 3D printers that I've used for different endeavors. The first one is home-made, so to speak, by students in the department. The photo of the Delta style printer illustrates the fabrication of a bracelet I designed using Rhinocerous 3D modeling software. The next photo shows the fabrication of a prototype for a vessel to be later cast in clay, this Maker Bot printer functions differently in that it works from a Cartesian grid. And the final images capture dynamic forms that were designed digitally in Rhinoceros 3D modeling software then routed out from plaster blocks by a CNC mill. Those plaster blocks served as a form for the final pieces.
These tiles tell the story of what we as humans, as groups, as cultures carry with us through time and space, across generations and continents. They were constructed by pressing small ceramic Mediterranean homes, that my mother keeps on display in her kitchen, into clay tiles. These decorative pieces, complete with barrel tiled roofs and so common in the homes of those who migrated from one place to another, carry memory and culture. The tiles are glazed with a vibrant cobalt, a material and color that itself carries meaning and memory.
Developing a visual voice for a project is a process of translation. We distill intention, mission, culture, and identity into a visual language. This method of communication can be strikingly simple when done well. Digital media is a fluid culture of evolving tools, perhaps one of the most dynamic languages we engage in.
There is nothing quite like clay, it is malleable, dynamic, forgiving, and unforgiving. It's why we all made mud pies. This series considers the inherent vibrant quality of the material. Each work engages the material in a special way, exploring the effect that impressions, patterns, rhythms, and glazing can have on a medium that is in constant dialogue with it context.
Architecture is a critical and rigorous team sport. I am so grateful for the opportunity to engage in its practice. These images are from a project I worked on in Miami Beach, Florida. There I became a lover of Art Deco and cultivated a deep appreciation for the style's shadow inducing ways.
The piece challenges our idea of the perspectives we are allotted by the enclosures that surround us. Each component is suspended from above, never touching the ground we find ourselves on. As you walk past, the wind created by the speed of your gate causes a small rocking in each of the pieces. It responds to you as you respond to it.
