Coyote/Trickster

The Trickster shows up in various guises in mythology all over the world. He (usually he) is Coyote or the Sacred Clown in North American native cultures;  Hanuman the monkey god in Hindu mythology; the Fool in European fairy tales. His job is to sow disorder and even madness; to poke fun at our pride and possessions; and to break down the barriers we think are real. But once those walls are shattered, we are open then to growth, change, and seeing things in a new way.

Coyote certainly seems to be active in culture and politics today. Whenever things seem to be going sideways at a great rate, he's there somewhere laughing.

Coyote/Trickster

Mixed media: Stoneware and found metal
20 x 16 x 10 inches

Yin Yang Horses

I've been thinking a lot about capturing movement through space, in dance and in other bodies in motion. In that vein, I've been working on a series of pairs of small porcelain horses. They are black and white, yin and yang, curving around one another in eternal and opposing relationship. The individual horses vary, but the pairs hold and express the same inclusive and circular space: tension and community; opposites that cannot exist one without the other; separateness and companionship; the dark in us and the light in us all.







Yin Yang Horses
Porcelain (slipcast and altered), stains & underglazes, fired to Cone 5
4 x 4 x 3 inches each

Bulería

Latest in the Flamenco Baile series. "Bulería" is a fast flamenco style and one of the most dramatic. It is often used as the finale to a flamenco gathering. The name comes from the Spanish word "burlar," which, fittingly, has many meanings: "shouting, noise," "to outwit," "to mock," and "to seduce."


Bulería
Porcelain/stoneware and found metal
14" x 7" x 8"

Amaya

So much of flamenco dance and music is about attitude. It's not enough to capture choreography; the dancer must carry herself like a queen, or even a goddess: fierce, proud, open-hearted, and full of courage and grace. No excuses, no explanations. This one is dedicated to Carmen Amaya, one of the legends of flamenco dance. When she was first discovered, one critic famously  described her as "pure soul," "emotion made flesh," and "a crude product of nature."

Amaya
Porcelain/Stoneware
14" x 5" x 6"