Karl Beamer

Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, USA

Title: Back Home Again in Shigaraki

Year of Creation: 2010

Glaze: Natural ash deposit from 10 day firing

Clay Body: Shigaraki Clay

Dimensions: Height 24 inches, Width 11 inches

Artist's Statement: My ceramic works are extensions of vessel traditions. I live and work intuitively, knowing that I have every opportunity to develop the sculptural ideas for gesture that I favor. Discipline and control are important, but at the same time I am willing to collaborate with the power of nature using water, earth, fire, gravity, and centrifugal force, as elements which are surely assertive in the outcome. So the works are begun as formal symmetrical forms, but finished bent, stretched, poked, pulled, and handled for life. The intention is for the work to have personal markings, suggesting movement. Movement suggests journey. One's journey can begin anywhere, go anywhere, and have personal resolution. It's life.