The Development of My Personalized Aesthetic Perspective (page 2/4) Additionally, I was interested in the concept of “life”, what life in an object meant and. questioned how an object could possess a life presence that was a reflection of its maker? I was seduced by the beauty and translucency of porcelain, but thought it to be a severely rigid, restrictive material prone to collapse. Through the discipline of practice learned from 12 years of tap dancing, I was able to push the material just to the point of collapse and realized that this was the moment that possessed the fullest, most ripe, sensuous form of life. I wish to make the abstract quality of the passage of time visibly manifest in an object that can be used to serve the needs of human beings. Time, both linear/sequential and virtual/plastic are important to me. I think of each of the objects that I make as being distinct segments of the passage of time in my life. They begin at a specific point in time and end at another specific point in time. They record my existence as an artist. I want them to be a record in the material of my interaction and struggle with that material. Each piece is intended to record the struggle, success, failure, or compromise inherent in the search for perfection. The passage of time is recorded using finger pressure to make weights of line, and contribute a visible chiaroscuro. Gesture is intended to impart a sense of life. The relative changing speeds of the potter’s wheel, fast or slow and the relative speeds and pressures with which the lines are drawn with my fingers are combined with the motion to or away from the central axis and orchestrated into a cohesive whole. The pieces exist as records of overlapping time structures and record the decision/indecision of the process. They record linear time passage, yet are made in virtual plastic time. They are temporal yet timeless. They represent specific time, all time and no time simultaneously. They are documents in clay that record the event. If you know how to read the document, and understand the structure, and sequencing you can, through touch, retrace how the piece was brought into existence and have some semblance of the feelings of the maker.