I have always been fascinated by what is trapped inside of rocks. When I was a kid, my parents took my brothers and sister and me to old strip mines where we would gather rocks to split open to see what was inside. How amazing it was to know that rocks held hidden treasure! That's what these firecracker pots remind me of. I take a ball of clay, stick a firecracker in it, light it, and run. Just like the rocks I split open, what's inside of these pots is random. The only control I have is the size of the clay ball and the strength of the firecracker. And even the firecrackers can't be counted on to explode the same way every time. After a bisque firing, I imagine what could be inside these "rocks" and glaze or paint a fanciful, organic treasure. I hope you enjoy "finding" these as much as I do.
"Firecracker Pottery", 4.5"x3.5"
"Firecracker Pottery", 5.5"x2.75"
"Firecracker Pottery", 4"x4"
Sculptures & Bowls
"Crabbie Barbie" 2004
My sculptures, mixed media and/or ceramic, possess a whimsical nature...they could be toys in another dimension. The bowls are, for the most part, functional and are thown or slumped.
"Cradled Blue", 2005, Mixed Media, 6"x9"x6"
"Tea for Three", 2005, Mixed Media, 10"x4.25"x2"
"Standing Citrus", 2007, Ceramic, 6"x8.5"x8.5"
"Red Grass", 2004, Ceramic, 4"x14.5"x12"
Drawings
"New York Crow", 2014
My favorite drawing tools are charcoal and pastels, and birds seem to be my favorite subject lately. Some of my birds fly over re-purposed maps, giving them room to soar high above the earth.
My paintings are most often portraits painted from photographs. I like to explore different angles and cropping to entice the viewer to wonder what else was happening at that moment in the painting. Paintings of people are fascinating to me. They capture that one instant when the subject's head was tilted just that way, the expression frozen in time, the act fixed in space. That's why I like to paint from photographs. The camera plucks the person out of real time and forces them to live in that moment forever. My painting is a celebration of that moment.
"Annie" acrylic on canvas, 11"x14", 2007
"Elaan", acrylic, 16in.x20in., 2005, Susan Tingley
"The Gardener", acrylic, 16in.x20in., 2008,Susan Tingley