Shoshin Stacks

Through making this series of work, I gravitate to the gentle murmur, the meditative corner, and the textured beauty of everyday objects.  Shoshin, part of the artwork’s title, is the word from Zen Buddhism that translates as “beginner’s mind.”  My Shoshin Stacks are hand built with slabs of red stoneware clay.  The slabs are textured using underglaze colors in a monoprinting technique that yields a layered, peeling-paint surface.  All of the stools in each stack then undergo multiple firings with applications of mason stain washes and thinned glaze.