This is a newly completed commission made through Robert Passal Interior and Architectural Design in New York City.  It's a pair of clay sculptures that can be used as stools or as small tables.  Each one is a little over 19 inches high, and about 12 inches in diameter.  The pieces are going to Houston.

The clay is a rugged white body meant for sculpture and architecture.  The glaze is smooth, white, and has only a bit of sheen.
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The above photo gives a sense of how I built these pieces.  It was necessary to build both at once so they would match closely.  The basic construction method is a combination of coil/slab.  It would seem logical to build the entire forms first and then add the basketwork surface texture, but the clay in the lower walls would have been too firm and dry for good attachment by that point.  So, the surface treatment has to be added while the form is being built.  It's a constant balancing act.

This is a new altered book I'm making.  I've glued all of the pages and painted a background on them.  Now I've started on the first page spread with collaged elements.  This page is probably complete except for a label identifying the book.

A running background theme in this book is Covid-19, the coronavirus that is wrecking human interaction - and life itself - around the world.  I have downloaded some of the coronavirus graphics we're all familiar with by now - I've altered them and printed them on vellum (a translucent paper), and I'm cutting out portions of the images to collage into the book.  On this first page spread, you can see a virus on the right hand page near the center fold, either floating or possibly attaching itself to the image below it.  Is it just another virus hanging out somewhere, hopefully not doing much, or is it attacking some kind of human organ system?  I think you know the answer already, having lived this far.

I've been making some thrown cups and plates lately.  These are porcelain, thrown on the potter's wheel and painted with underglazes and glazes.  They're big cups, holding more than 16 oz. each.

These two cups are going to the cup show at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans.  Of course, I made a bunch more in this series, including some variation in shape and leaf patterns.  

I also made some plates.  These are salad or snack size.

These are photos of the temporary, small installation that I designed for a family camping event at the Phinizy Swamp.  Several kids and a mom helped me.  We selected a tree just off the boardwalk at the Raingarden trail, we spread swamp clay around the base of the tree, then we gathered and placed 2 kinds of leaves around the tree.  At the end we put in a circle of unripe blackberries.  The whole thing should biodegrade quickly on its own.

2017 is the year of the Rooster.  The element is Fire, so this year's rooster is extra-feisty, and is best cooled down with a bit of Earth.  These small porcelain teapots are made entirely by hand, individually.  I had fun with suggesting the Rooster through a lid that looks a bit like a rooster's comb, plus some feather painting on the body of the teapot.  The earth element comes in through the use of a soft yellow-brown base glaze.  The teapots are 4 inches or less in height.

I've just finished a pair of cups that will go to The Art of the Cup, an invitational exhibition at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans.  I threw these cups from porcelain, dotted them with overlapping layers of underglaze, and fired them to cone 6 in an electric kiln.  These cups are big - even after the final firing, they hold 16 ounces of liquid each.

The Year of the Monkey begins on February 8.  Here are six small teapots that I made to celebrate the new year.  Each teapot is 4 to 5 inches tall, made individually and by hand of porcelain, hand drawn and painted.  Each teapot has two monkey faces, one on each side.

I have just completed a set of 7 teapots for the Year of the Sheep, which begins in February 2015.  In China, both sheep and goats belong to the Year of the Sheep.  It's pretty different from the biblical perspective, in which the sheep and the goats are always being separated.  These teapots are no more than 4 inches high, which is full size in China (tea is drunk very differently there than in the European traditions).  All of these teapots are completely handmade of porcelain clay.

I've just finished some teapots for the Year of the Horse, which begins in 2014.  These teapots are going to Shanghai for an international exhibition.  Each teapot is made of porcelain and is about 4 inches tall.  

I have just finished some new teapots for the Year of the Snake.  I focused on the beautiful skin patterns that some snakes have.  The teapots are thrown and handbuilt, from porcelain.  The decoration is drawn and painted in underglaze, covered with clear glaze, and then touched with gold overglaze.  Three firings were needed for each teapot.  Each teapot is approximately 4 inches high, which is full size in China.  The teapots will go to an exhibition in Shanghai.