“I look with the intention of perceiving the artistic elements I am observing, rather than attempting an intellectual dissection of the information. To this end, I want to be moved and inspired, and to embrace the potential of lived experiences.
“Doing” is a creative process that gives me the freedom to improvise, or to pursue an idea, see where it takes me, in order to keep my work alive and evolving. If I do not approach my work in this way, its stagnation will mark the beginning of the end, resulting in a slow artistic death.
I seek to make my work more fluid. This can be achieved with a more plastic clay, or more spontaneous shaping techniques: paying less attention to technical perfection and more time to understand the “whole” approach to concept, material and process. I want to create in a space of “surrender”.
When firing over a wood fire, the romanticism of the flamed effects often directs, or even overshadows, other aspects of the work. But in fact, material and process of creation, as much as surface color and texture, must be compatible. Firing alone cannot overcome the weakness that may exist in the nature of clay or the process of creating form.
I respond to the beauty that exists in the imperfections of Nature, the sense that perfection and symmetry as we know them are anything but a single form of that beauty. But in reality, Beauty exists. It is up to us to notice, discover, and expand our vision to appreciate it, beyond our predetermined Western view.
A torn leaf… a crack in a cement wall… a gnarled branch… a lightning bolt streaking across the night sky, all have the potential to be part of the dimensions of beauty that nourish the artist’s soul and creative process.”
Jeff Shapiro