This began with fingernails making marks in refractory bricks from an old kiln. A fascination with how soft yet so strong this material is. That quickly moved into making marks with old nails, hacksaw blades, and the Dremel. Marks turning into symbols, symbols coming together making stories, stories from patterns around me spurring thoughts and emotions coming through me, now frozen forever in these bricks.
Once glazed, the firing in the kiln bonded them together, forming a three-dimensional sculpture. Eventually, when I ran out of old bricks, the work transitioned into my first love, clay, and these bricks started to climb the walls. I knew these stories in patterns had to continue.
So became The Refractory Series.
Coming from a fascination of flow dynamics. In this case in a liquid when lamination becomes turbulent. When the flow is changed from hitting a cube, it’s interesting how the turbulence behind it almost shows a shadow of what the initial object is. Fascination brings inspiration.
