Scott Cooper

Fillmore, Indiana, USA

Title: Salt Vase

Year of Creation: 2011

Glaze: Green to black flashing slip, copper celadon liner, salt and soda

Clay Body: White stoneware

Dimensions: Height 11 inches, Width 5 inches

Artist's Statement: This vase has most of the qualities that I'm currently aiming for in my pots. A form that knows what it wants to be, with a well-declared rim and foot, but also an organic looseness to the line in between, showing how it was made on the wheel. A complex surface that marries the various stages of making, and the elements used in the making, together: the surface I leave on the wet clay with my fingertips and tools; interlaced areas of bare clay, kaolin slip and fluid, dynamic glaze; and the permanent record of orientation gifted by the salt and flame as they moved through the kiln.

The final object is more and better than I could have imagined at the outset -- an elaborate equation designed by me but solved by nature and the interaction of processes I can only partially control.