Athansor

"He moved like a dancer, which is not surprising; a horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music." - Mark Helprin (Winter's Tale)

In his novel "The Winter's Tale," Mark Helprin rolls several mythical horses into one powerful, flying, time-traveling white horse named Athansor. Athansor is pure white; a creature one with winter and snow and all the strange magic that can bring.

Athansor
17 x 21 x 4 inches
Mixed media: High-fire porcelain/stoneware and found metal

Leucippe

This one is a survivor; born and made of earth and weather. She is graceful and sturdy, in tune with the many rhythms of the land and even its harshest elements. Her form is ancient and rounded, like Japanese ema, Tang dynasty sculpture, and like those horses on the cave walls at Lascaux.

Leucippe is pronounced "lyoo-kipp-ee" and means "white mare" in Greek. Leucippe was a barley goddess in Rome. She's also linked with Epona, the Celtic horse goddess who was widely worshipped throughout Europe and Rome.

Leucippe

Porcelain/stoneware; found metal.

10 x 6 x 7 inches

Persephone

Persephone is the maiden of the seasons. She descends, and we move into the dark cold world of winter. She rises and we celebrate spring. But she was not just a victim; she tasted the forbidden fruit. She's the maiden, but she also embodies the wildness of desire that draws us down into the rich darkness of the Shadow and the Underworld.

In the official myth, the young Persephone is stolen away by Hades and taken to the Underworld. Her mother Demeter is goddess of the harvest. In her grief over Persephone's loss, she brings on winter, cold and famine. Zeus gives in to Demeter and releases Persephone. But during her time with Hades, she eats pomegranate seeds -  how many is under dispute - and must forever spend one third of every year in the Underworld. I can't blame her. Pomegranates don't look like much at first: just a ball of plain red dirt. But pry one open and it is like a honeycomb filled with rubies. Although we may fear and avoid it, the dark night of the soul is filled with such riches.

Persephone

Porcelain/stoneware, found metal

17 x 14 x 14 inches.

Iron Man: King of Pain

Iron Man started with a beautiful old square shovel I came across in the hills. It was split down the middle, rusted and worn -- a sturdy thing that had clearly been used long and hard. It got me thinking about endurance. Sometimes it takes everything we have just to take that next step.

Iron Man is a tribute to all of the qualities it takes to truly endure: the Iron Man of strength; the Jester who can laugh at himself and others; the humble, bent Elder who knows hard work and harder use, and the King, who knows his true worth.

Iron Man
Ceramic (recycled clay), found shovel, found gunshot metal
26 x 10 x 9 inches

Flamenco: Solea

In the mix of cultures that has formed Santa Fe, Flamenco dance has come through as a distillation of many of the high points of Spanish culture. Flamenco music and dance weave together elegance, strength, grace, defiance, and passion in equal parts. To become an accomplished Flamenco dancer takes many years. Each dancer must master not only the movement of the dance, but the expression and attitude behind it, as well as the rhythm in feet and hands.

There's an edginess, a sharpness to that attitude that contrasts beautifully with the grace and softness of the dancer herself. I love using the spiky gunshot found metal for the shawl and hair ornaments on this series of dancers. It captures perfectly the fury and complexity that add such a deep note to the passion of the dance.

Flamenco: Solea

Stoneware and found gunshot metal

24 x 18 x 11 inches

Winged Victory

Victory just isn't what it used to be. Winged Victory embraces the glory and grace of victory in its purest form, while acknowledging its inevitable cost. She is formed from high-fired ceramic and found metal from metal found in the hills around Santa Fe. Rusted and bullet-ridden, she rises from the chaos, lovely still and reaching for a higher meaning.

In the third century when the Winged Victory of Samothrace was created, Nike ruled as the goddess of winners. If war is hell, victory is heaven, where you can claim military and even moral superiority.

Nowadays victory in war is a complex thing at best, shot full of contradictions, collateral damage, moral crises, and uncertain outcomes. Governments declare victories every day, political and military. But we the people of the world have become a cynical lot, and the bloggers and Youtube videos expose too much of what conflict really costs.

Yet in some ways victory still belongs to us in its purest form. We rejoice when we claim victory over our own limitations, or better yet, victory over oppressive authority or our own violent tendencies.

Winged Victory

Stoneware, found metal with bullet holes (cylinder, green disc, scraps)

26 x 20 x 20 inches