Reflecting on My Time at Meadows School for the Arts

David and Jeanie from Tuscon are visiting the resort right now to dive on the Astrolabe Reef. After diving one day, we three took a long walk through the Joe’s garden.  During the walk,  Jeanie mentioned, out of the blue, that she was learning how to make pottery. Naturally, I told her that was my major in university which opened a flood gate of questions from how to center a piece of clay on the wheel all the way to should she go to a workshop or university class to further her education.   She also wanted to see pictures of my work so I sat her down and embarked on a quest that might have left her in the dust, but brought back great memories and rekindled a small flame inside of me. I took her through all four collegiate years of my ceramic work as well as a few multi-colored prints that I am fond of.  I explained different techniques to keep her interested and then dove a bit deeper into my thoughts which were too much for her.

The pictures below are a small selection to illustrate my work from 2004 to 2008.

The main point of my quasi slide show was a progression from brown pots that reflected typical pottery made by granola eating, tree hugging, earth loving people  that live in the woods of western Tennessee. But as I learned to wield the material better, I developed my own voice which is more reflective of MY LIFE–A city boy in love with loud music and bright lights. Bright lights that curve like the cars lights on I-75. Shapes like the right angles on the towers of downtown Dallas. Loud music like the songs blasting all weekend on McKinney Ave. These are the influences that started to show in my work as I sat down and looked from the beginning to the end of my collegiate career. And even now, I can see the same colors when I scuba dive. Neon green, burnt orange, blood red.  These colors and shapes are what currently occupies my mind and will be the nexus of my new work when I touch clay again.