David Crane

The pottery that I make is guided by a curiosity about how the shape of a piece might tie to its surface treatment.  Function and the vessel format guide the boundaries. The limited color palette of clay slips and glazes is selected through the need to simplify. My artistic vocabulary is nourished by a diverse range of historic and contemporary art and ceramics sources.  These many influences and interests are assimilated with my personal artistic perspective and inclinations.  The goal is to create unique, well-conceived individual ceramic objects.  The ideal is to create ceramic works with qualities that will enrich the viewer’s life. At its most basic, I make work that “feels right” to me at a given moment.  It is a quest that is continuously motivating, sustaining and one that is an ongoing challenge after many years working in clay. I use a variety of methods (including wheel throwing, altering, and press molding) to create the forms. My decoration currently uses contrasting surfaces of glaze, slip, and clay to create hard-edge designs.  The pots are then fired in a salt kiln.  This firing method, coupled with atmospheric sensitive glazes, produces pots with a rich range of color and surface variation.