This sad looking fellow was inspired by some sculptures I saw in Philadelphia and a deep sea fish called a hatchet fish with the most morose and pained expressions. I had intended to do a series of these to capture the diversity of those expressions and as I write this I am considering adding them to the cue. The semi-fluorescent dots represent the bioluminescent spots often seen on deep see creatures. The bottom 4 drawings are where I worked out where the lines of spots will go. The lines on the face and body are those rows.
It came into being at the beginning of my “tame” ceramic journey in 2019-20. Before that I explored “wild” clay and made vessels and sculptures that were pit fired. I am currently incorporating wild clay as a surface colorant. Read more my journey with wild clay here. I am now incorporating wild clay as a slip colorant. I love the earthy pallette provided by unfired wild clays but unfortunately all of the blues, greens, and yellows change to oranges and reds when fired. Small additions of titanium oxide helps retain the yellows. I am still testing underglazes to replace the blue and green colors that disappear in firing.
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