This marks my first blog post in some time. I just emerged from a sort of ceramic hibernation state. That said, there will be some interesting work to present over the coming days. Exhibition 'Saxifrage - 雪の下' opens in Kyoto, Japan, at H20 Gallery, on Tuesday, March 17th, and runs through Sunday, March 29th. (H20 Gallery contact and location http://www.eaudesign.com/h2o/) For the floral uninformed, saxifrage is an alpine flower in most of the world. The theme of this show draws parallel between beautiful things growing within seemingly harsh conditions. For the saxifrage, this includes being one of few flowers to thrive at altitudes as high as 13,000 feet. For the ceramic pot, this demonstrates the potential for beauty born from temperature at 2350 degrees fahrenheit. Perhaps neither condition, for the saxifrage or ceramic pot, is hostile really, and it's just my perception. Either way, I like the symbolism!

Consequently, in Japan, the saxifrage is known as 雪の下( yuki no shita), or 'beneath the snow'. Here, this flower is not an alpine variety, thus I scrabbled to develop a secondary symbolism for the exhibition. For the past few years, the mainstay of my work has been white porcelain. In the case of the wheel thrown porcelain for this exhibit, after a thaw, color is revealed. Images from the exhibition to come...