This show encompasses work completed since I began a sabbatical leave in December of 1998. Approximately six weeks into the sabbatical leave period the planned work was interrupted by a diagnosis of prostate cancer. After staging tests, second opinions, surgery, and recovery, the work continued into the following school year and through the present time. I titled the show Healing River because the work represents a steady flow of work produced throughout the healing process. The work inspired healing, and was the product of healing.

This work is typical of my recent artistic output in that it is a mix of sculptural and functional forms, and embraces a variety of approaches to the ceramic process. The sculptural forms are handbuilt earthenware painted with oil paints, raku fired wall sculpture and freestanding forms, and wall pieces in glazed porcelain. The functional pottery includes porcelain and stoneware.

The non-objective wall plate sculptures and aquatic forms will be familiar to those who have observed my work over a period of years. Most of these objects are fired using a personal variation of the raku process. I have begun to produce the familiar fish form in high-fired porcelain, working with a new set of glaze color options on the translucent white clay.

The large earthenware handbuilt dresser, Plowing Chiffonier, reflects the influence of Ohio ceramic artist Jack Earl, a Bluffton College alum of the class of 1956, with whom I worked for three weeks as part of my sabbatical activities. The trompe l'oeil chest, with its faux wooden texture and color, embodies a nostalgic childhood memory, and a snapshot of the beauty in a rural Ohio landscape.

The variety of form and content on exhibit here, represents a reiteration of past themes and new directions for the future. I am personally most excited about the later, and see the show as a series of beginnings, rather than conclusions.

I am pleased that the exhibition will run through May Day and graduation ceremonies at Bluffton College on May 5th and 6th, because my Bluffton College graduating class will celebrate our 30th reunion that weekend. The public is invited to a gallery reception from 3-5 p.m. on Saturday May 5th.

Dazzler

Raku

Copper Runner

Raku

Fish

Porcelain

Fish

Porcelain

Fish

Porcelain

Blue Boy

Porcelain

Blue Boy

Porcelain

Four Wall Fish In Situ

Porcelain