Strange Fruit

For more than a decade I have produced, considered, and cultivated a number of shapes that I use in select installation pieces such as strange fruit. Each object of strange fruit has been through two different baptisms of sorts; both by fire. One in an electric kiln, and the other, a hole dug directly into the ground filled with wood.

Imbued with the techniques of Karatsu producing these pieces is a semi-meditative practice.  I like to think of it as ceramic Yoga. As I shape and stretch the clay at the potters wheel each piece takes form. A famous potter named Phil Rogers used to say it was like drawing in the air.

Strange Fruit, (images below) individual gourd forms approx. 8" long X 3.5" wide, pit-fired earthenware, pigment, wax and latex, 2021. Install shots at James Wegner Gallery in Austin, MN, February, 2021.