Bruce Gholson

Seagrove, North Carolina, USA

Title: Crab Vase

Year of Creation: 2009

Glaze: Molybdenum and matte crystalline glazes with red clay slip

Clay Body: Porcelain fired in electric kiln

Dimensions: Height 18 inches, Width 11 inches

Artist's Statement: I am always amazed at how classically traditional my pottery seems to be after completing a body of work. I try to be unfettered and eclectic in the way I approach working with the clay, especially when choosing clay bodies, forming techniques, and types of firing necessary to achieve the surfaces that I desire. I find that changing between porcelains, stone-wares, and red clays, stimulates ideas. The material based intuitions that result, feed back into the creative process. Recently I have been enjoying the effect of using red clay fired at stoneware temperatures. The red clay is now providing me with a whole new palette of color and surface texture, from glazes that I previously used on porcelain.

The vase I have chosen for the Vasefinder 2011 exhibition is an urn shape with five handles thrown from porcelain. On this vessel, red clay is used as a slip to create a change in the background color at the top and bottom of the form. The crab images are also red clay slip and the fish fossil is slip trailed with a bisque crackle slip. The glazes are brushed on layers of molybdenum and matte crystalline glazes.