The Clay Studio : Shop

Two building processes are at the fore of my practice, pinch-formed vessels and slab built sculptural forms, which are often vessel-like. My pinched work is, by and large, intuitive. I do reiterate forms that I find particularly engaging, though no two can be exactly alike, series do emerge. The submitted work, Wildflower, is part of work currently being inspired by the distinctive vessels of the Jomon period of ancient Japan. Predominately, my pinching process is neither subtractive nor additive but expansive. I cultivate the form from one chunk of clay using the pinching method to open the chunk and expand it upward and outward. For larger forms, 10 inches or more, I sometimes use a slab or dome base. This work is meditative in the sense of being a flow experience. The concept of flow is a phenomenon researched by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow, or optimal experience, is gained during activities that have the right balance of skill vs. challenge. Presently, I am engaged in a process I call “pure pinching,” that is, making the goal of my practice to be present to process of growing a form from one piece of clay—it becomes a mindful practice. In one sitting I develop the form, intuitively sculpting the clay, and the end result is a contemplative object due to the visual mystery of the process. For the most part, my slab-built forms are more planned, measured and intentional. This work is the process through which I explore specific subject matter. It gives me scope to philosophize concretely. Balance, the paradox of inside and outside, architectural structural references and materiality all serve as metaphors in these pieces. Ultimately, I am interested in the development of interiority on a continuum with exteriority. Equilibrium and balance, visual or literal, appear where it seems none can be attained. My work primarily critiques traditions, broadly defined, where they impede the possibility of ongoing equanimity. I present equanimity as compositional balance. While the pinched vessels are ongoing work for which I regularly invent new techniques and forms, I engage fresh conceptual ideas through the slab building. I recently completed a series called Cell Persona: The Impact of Incarceration on Black Lives with a capstone solo 2019 NCECA exhibition. The first Persona forms I built (2017) dramatized personality with the spatial metaphor of the paradox of inside and outside. Cell Personas likewise use space as a metaphor for characteristics of personality as it is constructed by attitudes and actualities that shape the experience of those who are within a system that extends beyond release from prison. This sort of work is challenging to me personally. I did not use my creative work as a catharsis or voice for these concerns until 2014. I was engaged in social justice in other ways and quieted myself with the pinching practice. Going forward I envision that I will continue to work in both slab and pinched forms since both meet different expressive needs. The slab piece submitted here follows closely on this series but stands as part of a new body of work dealing specifically with personal inner torments, generally with the unique suffering of the black community and the universally hints at the realization of a society that has found itself without coping tools to face its needless discontents.

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Paul Briggs

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Paul Briggs

Did you Know?

Can We Help?

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