Hadi Abbas

Orlando, Florida

Title: Vase

Year of Creation: 2006

Glaze: Wood fired stoneware

Clay Body: Red stoneware

Dimensions: Height 11 inches, Width 6 inches

Artist's Statement: Using wood as fuel to harden clay is an ancient technology; however, it is not the method or technology that I have been primarily after rather the byproduct that the wood burnings leave behind. The wood burning allows the fire to touch each ceramic piece creating an autobiographical work telling the story of its encounter with the fire. The fire strokes the clay surface as a painters brush strokes a canvas leaving the clay surface with the texture of rough, smooth, crude, or touches of color like yellow, grey, and brown.

My goal is that no matter what the effect of the wood firing is that the work can display an aesthetic beyond the surface treatment of the fire or the technique, but to display the beauty the viewer draws or perceives out of the work. My forms are inspired by Persian, Indian, and Islamic architecture such as the domes on the Muslim's shrines and temples. This influence is born from the fact that I grew up in that culture and I draw from strong childhood memories. Since 1979 I have lived in the Southern United States and I have been influenced by the early American cast iron work.

Earth, air, fire and

water are obedient creatures,

they are dead to you and me,

but alive at God's presence.

-Rumi

Persian Poet