Sunday, November 30, 2014



 NEW WORKS




Recently I've been taking a break for working at the potter's wheel to explore some new hand built porcelain forms.  Many of these are informed by old sketches from graduate school that I recently uncovered while cleaning my studio, others reference landscape and rock formations that I've photographed in recent travels.  Either way, these pieces represent a body of work that has grown in parallel with my sculptural and functional vessel forms, and excited at the opportunity to begin to exhibit it.  Many of these forms still exist within the structure of the pot...vases, small box forms,
containers...while others exist as purely sculptural studies.



...small ikebana vase..


I've also begun posting images at Instagram under the user name john_oles.  I figured it was about time to shake my aversion to technology and, truthfully, it's a lot more convenient to post images directly from my iPhone.  





....celadon porcelain vase, ..hand built..




While the previous three pieces were made over the last month, the following images are of small sculptural pieces that were made around this time last year.  Looking back, there's a common thread that connects the work, but for a long time I was concerned about the way this work would exist within the context of my existing body of work.  Of course, only time will tell.....




....porcelain and black fired stoneware.... December, 2013.




...detail...

One of my favorite things about making this work is in the process of working reductively with the material, as opposed to always building volume from the inside, as you would with pieces that were begun on the wheel.  Much like wheel throwing, this reductive sculptural process exploits many of clays inherent properties that make it a fascinating material.



...porcelain and black fired stoneware..



I'll end with a recent wheel thrown covered jar that I think might begin to bridge the gap between my hand built and wheel thrown pieces......



 




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