Agril

In less then a week I am exited to say I will have my first Solo Exhibition as a "Proffestional Artist". I am exited beyond words but am also ready to see then work up and finished. However perhaps the one thing that is still and will always be fun for me is educating people.

I have named my exhibition "Argil". What does this mean. It is an Old English word meaning clay, or more sacrificially Potters Clay. Aside from the Duhhhh moment of well yeah it is a ceramics show why did i choose this? History!

For me ceramics is more then an art form. It is history being contemporary in creation or prehistoric. While technology has changed, as has our needs and motivations some things are no different from the first craftsman to heat clay until it turned to stone. Clay is still a material of many moods, visceral or forgiving, pliant or demanding. It requires work, time, skill and love to make pieces that are successful, be it in an pit fire or a computerized kiln all require skill and craftsmanship.

My interest in history has been a key factor in this project. Items that were the building blocks of culture were not always those made of gold or written in history books. But practical items that let people move from one technological lever to another. Storage vessels allowed mankind to move from hunter gathering to farming as storage would allow you to keep crops through off seasons. Yet other types of these vessels would allow long distance travel of materials that would otherwise spill or leak like wine, oil, and other liquid or granular products, as the inspirations for my amphora were. They allowed trade over the sea and river with their unique shape and function. This not only was a useful economic but also cultural and historical factor as it was a time for different groups of people to interact through trade of goods and ideas.

So when I see ceramic art of today. I see the idea the artist is trying to show however I also see the centuries and cultures that have been touched by the most humble and yet powerful materials on earth with its transition from soil and organic material to clay, to later stone.