The 1994 Shigaraki Ceramic Culture Park Residency
Shigaraki, Japan

The main focus of a fully funded guest residency, at the Shigaraki Ceramic Culture Park in Shigaraki, Japan, was to create a series of ceramic work and sculptural brushes for their visiting artist museum collection.

I had the opportunity to present formal Japanese public lectures and demonstrations both at the Mashiko Museum and the Shigaraki Ceramic Culture Park.  The artistic and social interaction between residents and regional and national Japanese students was a major focal point of this residency. Unique cultural exchanges took place fused with around the clock art making.   

It was a true honor to be invited and welcomed to a prestigious international residency such as the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park.  This experience, during the past several years, has shaped my work and has enabled me to grow as an artist passing on the valuable knowledge I learned to students and other artists.

 A variety of Japanese clays were used to explore this work as well as the utilization of both the wood fire and raku firing processes. 

My artwork focused on the vessel combined with the form of the brush.  Broken clay artifacts from the Shigaraki dump were combined with bamboo root sections found on the grounds of the Culture Park.  Creating forms of clay bones referencing to the figure were explored in relation to the vessel as a metaphor for various human conditions.