Yet I feel I must bridge the particular and emotional attachment I have of this specific time and place with a broad enough conception so as to capture something elemental. I photograph, draw, paint, and collage in the search to find an appropriate means of simplification and representation without stooping to create a literal imitation of my landscape. There was a time when I tried to represent long vistas on small pots, yet today the focus of my gaze gets tighter and tighter. More recently I look to translate single leaves, blades of grass, or acorns with patient and passionate observation that transforms nature and relates it to the shapes and decoration of my pottery. The initial impression of a landscape is often of a repeating element, grass for instance, in a field.
Closer inspection transforms the repetition into nuanced patterns and rhythm.
Series and sets of pottery exhibit this same transformation of repetition into pattern and individuality. Repeating a particular form does not result in identical pots. While to the untrained eye they may initially appear to be identical, closer inspection reveals that each is idiosyncratic and unique. If however, a potter leans purely on the concept of what is repeatable, then the form thus achieved often represents the lowest common denominator. The alternative is to explore the realm of exactly which qualities of pattern and rhythm can create an aesthetically cohesive series.