About Larry
Getting started
My first pottery experience was during a summer school ceramics course during my high school years. I made a couple really awful coil pots. Purple and yellow glazes. A bowl and a vase. Both leaked. It was fun but I didn't really get it. I didn't have a conversation with the clay. It wasn't until a couple decades had passed that I was exposed to the possibilities of clay at Portland Community College where I got thoroughly hooked.
Forging a collaboration
Sometimes the clay is cooperative, a partner in the vision. Sometimes it’s contrary. Working with it is always a collaboration. While the clay prefers to relax in elegant, organic shapes I challenge it to take the shape of something it doesn’t want to be. Rigidly straight. Machined. As though the piece was cobbled from spare parts found on a boilermaker's workbench. Held together with nuts and bolts. When the clay and I have reached agreement and we’re both content with the result, I find myself negotiating with the glaze. In the end, I’ve shaped the clay and applied the glaze but the final decisions are made in the kiln.
Hopeful result
The outcome is, without a doubt, the result of a four-way partnership between the clay, the glaze, the kiln, and me. If all goes well, the collaboration has produced some interesting pieces and I've had a chance to exercise my creativity. If all goes well, my work will conjure a smile, incite a chuckle, or perhaps pour a cup of tea.