I’m honored to be a part of the Odyssey Gallery of Ceramic Arts.

 My architectural training and thirty-year commercial and residential firm career inform my design sensibilities about creating forms, relationships, movement, and scale.

I envision a piece by drawing multiple penciled sketches and then examining form, proportion, tripartite division, hierarchy details, inventiveness, pottery craft, and conventional traditions. Sometimes, I innovate beyond tradition to realize a graceful and well-proportioned vessel that I envisioned.

 I often use clays containing chemical components to yield depth and speckles that will emerge through the glazes when fired. The pieces thrown with these clays twist in the kiln because I fire them beyond the clay’s threshold temperature which results in vessels with captivating distortions.

 Another one of my techniques involves applying glazes that can create surprising disruption on a vessel’s surface.  When the vessel undergoes kiln-firing, disruption continues. The result is a glaze that crawls, cracks, and flakes off, leaving a unique, eye-catching final piece. This glaze technique complements and contrasts with my vision for creating graceful, well-portioned, statuesque vessels.

 Kurt Ross