Ceramics 1998-2005

The joy I find in working with clay stems from the spontaneity and the element of uncertainty it brings. There's a unique and captivating thrill in the anticipation of opening a kiln and discovering the hidden treasures within. Within my ceramic practice, I am drawing and painting by using an array of tools and application methods. It is a process that requires multiple firings to obtain the desired hues and effects. My ceramic work is low-fire (cone 04) firings, using a diverse range of engobes, slips, and glazes to craft textured and vibrant palettes. I also enjoy wood and soda firings, particularly when it comes to how the unique atmospheric firings interact with my figurative and portrait clay drawings.

“My relationship with ceramics has always been a double-edged sword, because I originally didn’t identify with ceramics or sculpture. In the beginning, I used clay to make a better painting! I see my work as a working soup; gathering aspects of influence, being influenced by curiosities, questions that occur through observations, observations of beauty, the beauty of a pose, the posing of questions, the questioning of media mixed, the mixing of metaphors, the metaphors of things that are most important, the importance of things that create passion, the history of passion and personal definitions of passion that are different from history’s, and the joy of understanding that we are in history now and not in a “post-history”. The biggest chore is to make soup full bodied and experiential and not a concoction of repellent meaninglessness.”

~ Arthur Gonzalez