Thomas G. Gilfillan

Whitefish, Montana

Title: Stack Series II

Year of Creation: 2006

Glaze: Wood fired with natural slips

Clay Body: Stoneware

Dimensions: Height 24 inches, Width 8 inches

Artist's Statement: The ceramic art world seems to me to be in a state of flux, once again looking for direction. Art as a whole is always reinventing itself and how it's produced. For me, working in clay is a journey - not a destination. My stacks and sculptural platters are paths - sometimes separate, sometimes joining.

My excitement to work in clay comes from two stimuli. A sense of energy I feel when working with clay - the urge to work quickly, and the very nature of clay itself - the ability to work with and immediately change the clay at any given moment during the working process. I routinely and literally beat them with bricks, boards, press tools and other objects manipulating the surface and structure of the clay to achieve the desired results.