This summer has been filled with making a lot of new work.  I am excited for the direction the work is taking and where it will continue to go.  These are some prints made last night for this years Renegade Craft Fair here in Chicago, September 6th and 7th.  If you are in the area please stop by and visit.   More information will be posted closer to the Fair.

Works composed of glass, plexiglass, string, silicone, and metal.  


I think of the current pieces as if I were drawing with material, placing and rearranging.  Adjusting the lights to reveal a shift in shadow and reflection. The title that comes to mind is wall sculptures.  What is painting?  What is sculpture?  There lies an interest in pushing the idea of both. I feel as though these inquisitive insights to space and architecture drive me to establish a composition on a 2-dimentional level as well as create an existence for material on a sculptural level.    
How does the subtlety of one thing amplify another?  The shifting occurrence of light allows for the reflective and translucent qualities of the material to take on multiple iterations of a particular mark.  Does the material consume light or reflect it back?  Does a thread line bare more weight than that of a paint line?

The nature of this glass work started just about two years ago right before my BFA show.  I have not been able to give my full attention to this work over the past years, though there has become a steady consistency of new iterations of these works since my residency at Lillstreet.  Articulating the work...  There is a sense of how i place the panels of glass and their position to the wall.  How do the lean on or up against?  The act of painting or placing the sting around the glass are decisions that are made in response to the panes of glass themselves, yes, but more importantly how these marks respond and cast themselves on to the wall.  the relationship of them or the threshold between them?  Like the threshold of the interior and exterior of a glass door?  

Always maintain a shift in the work that you are making.  It's hard I know.. Veering off the path, removing the blinders, straying from certainty, however you want to put it.  As makers, artists, thinkers,  we need that constant flow of up and down, it keeps us on our toes.  I mean we can't walk on our toes all the time, thats just silly.  We need to be grounded flat on our feet at times, but to always be grounded keeps us from experiencing and growing from what we already know. 
I made these little sculptures in response to the open call for Small Favors at the Clay studio.  It took the open call for me to stray away from my daily practice.  Find a reason and stray....
oh and exciting news is that the Material Intersection: High Wire was selected for this years Small Favors show! 

Wow, it's already March and I have a lot going on this month, one reason being it's my birthday, which tells me how much closer I am to hitting 30.  The real excitement though is my participation at this years NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts).  This year the conference will be held in Milwaukee, which so conveniently is in close proximity to where I am living right now.  At the conference I will be part of a Panel Discussion with two artists (Joanna Pike and Chase Folsom whom are current residents at The Clay Studio Philadelphia.  I will also be one of 12 artists part of this years Process Room.  This series allows emerging artist who are currently living in Wisconsin or the neighboring states of this years NCECA Conference to demonstrate some of their processes/techniques that are currently driving part of their practice

5:15pm - 6:00pm Thursday




Nomadic Artists: Urban Residencies in Ceramics

By Chase Folsom, Joanna Pike, Joe Kraft The panel consists of three resident artists;  Chase Folsom, and Joanna, from The Clay
Studio in Philadelphia, PA, and Joe Kraft from the Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, IL. Each presenter will provide candid thoughts on moving his/her studio practice to an urban situation. 

1:00pm - 1:30pm Friday

Ballroom A

Process: Form, Handle, Line By Joe Kraft

The cup is a 3-dimensional composition. Its function, simplistic in nature, has many variables that require attention. Kraft will demonstrate his sensibilities about hand pinching cups and the finishing process, alongside the importance of balancing his forms using pinched handles and simple line drawings through terra sig.

Okay.. so where to start.  Here is a collection of images that have been on my mind and have sparked new things in the studio.  The first four images are pieces that I recently made.  New in the sense that they were created a week ago, but not so much new to the conscious thought.  ah.. the conscious and unconscious.  This will make sense in a minute.  The rest of the images are picture that I shot while traveling in France, (oh god a year and half ago)  Taking these images spoke to me on many levels.  There is a sense of meaning and purpose to the window displays or shutter compositions on the buildings.  Fragments of something larger.  Essentially well balanced machetes.  I have been so curious in my own work about line shape and composition.  An ongoing study within all the work I make.  I am intrigued by the placement or rather displacement of something we might be looking at.  To create a surface of some kind, there are many elements that factor in.  Reacting and responding, intuitive and deliberate, conscious and unconscious, preparedness and damn right just owning the marks you make.  Those marks might not be exactly what you looking for, but the only way to search them out is to own them without any trepidation.  Easier said than done right? 

Material, light and shadow are some of the key elements that are so beautiful in these photos.  The strength that a casted shadow line holds over the naturally made water lines along the brick.  This enters into depth and building upon each of the surfaces. The interaction among the different materials allows for a combination of different line qualities. (soft, hard, bold, thin).  Does the material consume light or reflect it back?  I like the play of both.  

The works that I recently made are in response to and came to fruition from these photographs.  Now that I'm writing this, the imagery on my ceramic work all stems from this trip as well.