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.
This is the lower part of a three panel piece.
The house I moved into in Joshua tree has a garden. The previous owners were growing giant garlic that had flowered.
I fell in love with the Allium flower and I grow it every session just to enjoy the flowers.
The three piece sculpture is eight foot tall by sixteen inches wide and sells for $4200 or $1600 for each individual panel.
