The elegance in the grotesque.

Five years ago, I was gifted with the chance to attend a workshop taught by Randy Brodnax. I was stuck and needing a push and my wife thought that this would be just what I needed to take my work to the next level.

Yes she was right, but don't tell her, I'll never live it down.

So this crazy Cajun showed me how to not stop with just a simple pot but to make it mo' betta. To push beyond where most people stop. It set me on a path that I continue to follow today.

I had no idea that this desire to form clay, to push it to its limits and beyond would result in a series of work for the last 5 years.

In altering and shaping the wheel thrown form I began to look beyond just making a pretty pot. I began to look inward. I have always been a big guy, husky, large, OMG here comes StayPuff. Yes I am not small, I am obese. The bell went off ding ding, This is what you should be making, pieces that take all those years of looks, of insults, of being made uncomfortable, of being uncomfortable, looking in a mirror, of not fitting society's image of human.

Take all of that and show that, where there is pain, beauty can appear, the Grotesque De Elegance.

This is how they start, a pretty, perfect pot is then pushed, pulled, shaped, formed, altered. They take a few days to make, and I have failures as they are pushed beyond what the clay is meant to do at that time. Each one is an individual, each one is special in its own right. Each one is beautiful.

So if you every wanted to know why an artist makes what they make, there is my answer.