One year prior to leaving for Kyoto I was 'lucky' enough to store my ceramic equipment, display shelving, and actual pottery vessels, in an abandoned building on Broome Street in Manhattan. There was no rent, but in exchange came high risk and some drama. That final year saw my belongings exchange hands between two young Israeli guys squatting in the building, Ron Paul's 2012 New York City presidential campaign team (don't ask), and a mysterious someone who transferred most of my things from the 3rd to the 5th floor of the building. All said and done, I maintained possession of all my things and ceramic work, with the exception of the piece below. It is out there somewhere, sitting on a nice piece of furniture I hope.

As a historical reference for the person who has this work, it was inspired by a classic Chinese and Korean pottery form. The Chinese version is known as a 'Meiping' (plum vase), and the Korean version a 'Maebyeong'. This was my interpretation of the form that includes incised concentric rings with character carvings on the porcelain. The glaze is in the style of a celadon, but I derived the color green by means of copper and nickel oxides rather than the traditional use of iron.