Sun Over Sea

Artist Statement: A lot of my work is focused on connecting organic elements and/or elements of nature to functional pieces. Growing up in Alaska, I have always been surrounded by nature and the beautiful Alaska wildlife. During the long summer season, I always go fishing, camping and even berry picking. I try to apply all of these elements to my pieces and give my viewer a little experience of this way of life. This piece, titled “Sun over Sea”, is a functional butter dish that has organic sculptural elements that are meant to represent the sun setting over the sea. The intention of this piece was to make a functional butter dish that expresses elements of nature. When creating this piece, I used the stiff slab technique and carved out the shapes using templates. I then started assembling my pieces using slip and scoring the edges. I cleaned my piece and started adding the sculptural elements such as the sun, which I used nichrome wire to make. I then fired the piece and coated it with glaze before firing it again. To finalize the piece, I added bits of gold luster.