Links

My collection of links has gotten big - a lot of good stuff - valuable resources, opportunities, and sources of inspiration.  These links fill a void for me - help me feel connected to the huge number of people working in this medium.

I've added JavaScript to the page that will automatically alphabetize the various lists and eliminate duplications.

Clay origami

I recently watched a mind-bending video about origami, Between the Folds.  The concepts of folding can be applied to a broad range of subjects.  We are not just talking about paper airplanes and swans.   The physical features of any line or surface can be defined in terms of folds.  There are broad implications for 3d design, architecture, and chemistry.  I started thinking about what I could do with folds in clay ... and exciting ideas came to mind.

I immediately understood how George Ohr was able to control the way some of his pots collapsed.  He must have put folds (or pleats) in the walls before he squashed.  Wow!  I tried it ... and got interesting results every time.  Now I'm working on a series of pots that employ pleat-controlled collapse.  It is very cool!  You get a very organic form from a thrown vessel.  It is necessary to do hand building and/or complex construction of thrown parts to create a vessel or sculpture that utilizes the collapsed portion.

I'm having fun.  Click to see some images of this work.

Power to the Potter

I was an insecure kid. I didn't know any artists or craft-persons.  Pottery - unknown.  Sculpture - nothing.  No tradition. Television culture. Class clown settled down and pursued a career in medicine.  Why?  I knew that other people would value this choice ... and I couldn't think of anything else to do.  I worked hard, went to good schools, became a competent physician, ... but came to see that I wanted another kind of life - a quieter and more creative one. I dropped out and had the good fortune of stumbling into clay.

I had gotten into medicine expecting that my efforts would be valued.  In the first years in my own studio, I had the naive expectation that calling myself a "potter" would automatically give me a new identity, sense of community, and source of pride.  It took a while to realize that changing my label was just a step in the right direction.  I didn't find myself until I was able to see my place in a much larger context.

I'm at peace.  I am humble without shame or worry.  My past mistakes are lessons. I don't care about money or recognition. I'm open.  I presume nothing.  I'm learning.  I share freely.  My sense of well-being does not require certainty, familiarity, order, control, perfection, or justice.  I always try to do the right thing.


I want my work in clay be loose and playful.  I want to develop my ability to improvise spontaneously around my ideas as I'm working - to work without a precise plan, precise control, or the nerdy intrusion of my intellect. In order to be as loose as I would like, I believe I need to maintain skills that can only be acquired through the discipline of production work.  I intend to continue cycling between production work and playful work.

An inner voice calls me to a creative life.  Following that voice can be scary and lonely. I've learned that success is impossible without risk-taking and persistence.  My trepidation, procrastination, detours, intellectualizing, idealizing, pretending, ... my studies of ceramic technology, ... my efforts to make safe pots to sell, ... my efforts to teach ... are all just ways of dodging the risks and labor of making original physical objects.  A chicken potter is a very small potter.  A secret potter is no potter at all.  I will put myself out there every day.