Tony Ferguson

Duluth, Minnesota

Title: Nautilus Vase

Year of Creation: 2006

Glaze: Cone 10 black glaze and ash mixtures

Clay Body: Porcelain clay body

Dimensions: Height 10.5 inches, Width 6.5 inches

Artist's Statement: I have been transitioning into working with porcelain from stoneware for the last three years. I am interested in further exploring the qualities of this material and its ability to communicate through its soft, tactile nature, aspects and relationships of surface, form, and fusion. The visual language of this work has to do with the form and movement of the glaze surface finding its root is abstract expressionism while also referencing the human form. Examining the relationship between form, how far the porcelain can be pushed or manipulated, and creating a glaze surface that does not sit on the surface but combines with the form is something of interest to me. I am also attempting to create a canvas, such as in my platters or bowls, where I can paint with glazes as an abstract expressionist, attempting to capture a kind of energy by spraying multiple glaze areas, building up areas to be thicker than others with compliments of various ash mixtures and setting up the "Happy Accident" to take place as these glazes run and move over the surface. After countless wood firings with twenty percent of the work possessing the surfaces and forms that excite me, I am now approaching my work as a painter and sculptor "with intention" and less "accident" and taking the wood kiln air born ash aesthetic and applying it to how I glaze the work for both wood and gas firings. All my work is a work in progress and continually in a state of progression--or let us hope so.