John Stephenson

Statement:

I like to think that, as a ceramic sculptor, I deal with space or the void in much the same way a composer of music deals with silence or the absence of sound. With my mind’s eye I play, turning a three-dimensional form in space. The form may turn inside and out. Sometimes it floats in space, losing its sense of gravity. In a number of ways I am attracted to the form of an auger. It attracts me by a metaphor it develops with the iron tool we see move the earth. The auger as a ceramic art form renews its earth connotation. For me the plastic nature of clay has been a perfect match for the mind as it conjures form largely from an inner vision.

I enjoy the visual push and pull, into and out from the axis of the auger form. The first hollow clay augers became “Earth Augers.” They began to remind me of earth shapes left behind the plow in the rolling fields. Larger “Twisted Earthscapes” followed these works. Abstractly painting the surface of these twisting forms became part of the challenge. At times color on these surfaces enforces what the eye comprehends. But then it can also camouflage the form hiding the presence of inherent dynamic energy. The twist of the auger form is a gesture in space, which we experience both visually and tactilely, intellectually and physically. The viewer should feel the torque, the pushed and pulled as they move around the fired clay form.