Once again... 
Maggie Malloy curates 
another great sculpture show,

in a brand new gallery space,
operated by Steve Allen:
SMAart Gallery,
located at 1045 Sutter St.
in San Francisco!

The show, Deja View,
includes myself
and nine other ceramic sculpture artists, 
showing a collection
of current & older works.
It will be opening on
Thursday, Sept.6th
from 6-8pm, 
concurrent with
the Polk St. Artwalk, 
and will close on 
Saturday, Sept.29th
6-8pm also.

I intend to show some of the work shown below:

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Totem of the Lost Spirit

Totem of the Lost Spirit

Totem for a lost spirit,
in the nation
of once was wandering
bison herds charging,
elk horns leaping,
tribes led by
needs of eachother,
then

turned bloody battlefields,
and so many slaves brought a'sailing,

bloodshed over ownership
over man, land, and water;
turned gold diggers,
miners of fortune,
pioneering possession
from the east to the west

unto ill-defined and unprepared for ends
that so far have not
and may never
justify any means...

Once nurturing the spirit in all things
became havers of dominion over all things.
Once everything started being about
costs and payoffs,
So much of us has become
just a game of numbers,
and endless race to gain,
regardless of its diminishing of our common values
and the needs of our species
to survive within
the greater contextual web of spirit and life.

This is my totem
steeped in the remorses of a lost nation of voices,
crying out for a common good to come from
pains of being so very bad.

What Makes A Man

On so many levels,
there are untold numbers of systems
that confine and cajole the spirit of mankind
into distanced, fearful, hateful little boxes
that neither lift us up out of the darkness
nor remind us of the cosmic kindred spark
that lies within us all..
When viewed through the looking glass
we find the unobscured truth
of bias, belittling, bashing, and bloodletting
that often accompanies
the ignorant and inhumane face of oppression.

Toward those who seek
to be seen, heard, and counted
among the throws of humanity... often
we have placed a hierarchical condemnation.
Toward those most in need
of our empathy & compassion,
and even our respect,
society has only the most
rudimentary and unholy of disdain.
From the laws we make
to the bones we break...
there is little respect for the
equivalence of all mankind. Still.




When MLK walked among the men of color,
who happened to be collecting the garbage of Memphis...
what struck me most interesting
was the sign around all of their necks.
Neither a condemnation of the government,
nor their bosses, which allowed such shameful
working conditions to be the status quo,
nor was the message one demanding loudly any number of demands which could be had...

The message was simply this:
"I AM A MAN"

In this new series, i try to explore
this issue of what makes a man;
using what i believe are
the modern-day downtrodden men whom
society today has trapped into
the belief that somehow,
they are less than men.
When finished there will be 5-10 figures that represent
different views of a man,
cursed though he may be,
wearing the same sign,
"I AM A MAN"
to remind us once again whom it is we are looking at.

Art Show & Sale begins this Friday!

BUY LOCAL ART!


Perhaps ornamentation is your thing, perhaps it is finding the rare gift that says it all ... perhaps it is merely witnessing artistic expressions, whether they be great or small.
Whatever the case, please come to see my latest work at
CCSF Ft Mason Art Show & Sale
this weekend, beginning Friday from 6-9pm.

You may see some of these...
Probably this one...
...and maybe even some of this.
STAYED TUNED!!! & See you there:
FT MASON BLD.B
FRIDAY, 6-9PM,
SAT/SUN 12-5PM

FIRING IN PROGRESS

Here you see the work amidst others from my group... hint: mine looks like wood...



















and other things.. unmentionable...

Visions of Morhdorh

Having some fun with sculptural vessel forms, with walls the texture of wood bark, which i have made a new mold of. These remind of me several things at once, and i have heard the same from others. I like their irregular wall height which moves the eye and provides the empty space necessary for the viewer to fill in the blanks for themselves. I am doing a series, and have four set up already...

perhaps i will stop making them when they cease to amuse me. At least, they provide the background noise while i do the more important large pieces this year, which take far more patience, thus leaving me with intervals of free time in the lab that i must entertain.
This new mold pours simply, pops out within the the course of two & a half hours and can be cut in multiple places to create nuances, as well as limit the amount of replication throughout the pieces.








They call to mind
cavernous volcano ranges,
perhaps a rough hewn crown,
an ancient & weathered tree stump,
campfires, and upside-down icicles.
Being a believer in the made-up lands of man,
I would call them
"Visions of Morhdorh"
and let them give you whatever visions they will...

I wanted to be posting over the last three months, but have unfortunately found myself between several rocks and some very hard places. Alas, the summer has treated me so badly that i longed only for the respite of my much beloved studio on the Bay, which i had gladly said goodbye to in May only to return in August with so much relief and elation. This was just this week on my way in to the studio in the morning... it was a perfect & productive day.
To be back to work that, again, i forgot to write until the first month of the semester had worked its way furiously on by, and some of the summer's demons were finally expelled from me.

It started with a trip to Kabuki Spa, to bath eternally and rid my mind and soul of the negative energy it has been carrying around lately. After the first half, consisting of a long hot sauna, and two stints in the hotter steam room (salt scrub and all), feeling ever foggier and yet all-the-more present, i was meditating in the darkest back corner chair, really zoning out... when i looked up to see the very dim and only source of light: two simple, yet elegant, wood box laterns, which i had never before noticed in all my Kabuki bathing, and which were extremely low lit but had such a defined presence in the space. That moment was an epiphany for me, to recreate these as a narrative and in the language of my wood planks would be my journey...

in that brief breath of time, I had already set a course... and so far, i have almost four sets of these:















And eventually... these wood frame-boxes will become a sort of japanese latern, complete with rice paper, and will each tell a small story with the sculpture being lit from behind inside of them... approx. 20"x 20" x 22", these should make for a very impressive and beautiful series.