When I approached the series “Paradigm” I was in a very stagnant period within my work and personal life. I was unfamiliar with the wheel before the vessel semester at KCAI and I struggled to keep up with the demands of form and volume requirements for our various cup/cylinder/bowl assignments.

Despite the hours and physical effort, I could rarely achieve the ideal forms to the extent my peers with experience could so quickly produce. I was frustrated and frankly unsatisfied with my work and was tired of feeling that way, so to pivot I wanted to make something that I wanted to surround myself with.

I wanted to be somewhere new, exciting, unexpected, and ethereal. I knew that if I had nothing else, I had knowledge, the ability to learn more and could be somewhat capable of troubleshooting from there.

For our final assignment I found more satisfaction when I stopped limiting myself to the requirements for the actual volume of the vessel and started considering how forms are as professional as the audience wants them to be. I began to focus more on glaze chemistry and the process of making molds in the multiple. I had some vague goals in mind in consideration to the glaze outcome but had to completely let go of any expectation when unloading the kiln.

With these forms I'm creating what I want to see and be around, exploring escapism's potential forms as elements of a landscape. Paul Donnelly summed this up by saying I want to explore the undiscovered potential we find in ourselves through process by approaching work in a way I wasn't used to.

And yeah, I think that's accurate, even if it sounds cliche. It's art school, so that's kinda the whole idea.
Really this series of incense burners are a result of me having a weak ass solar plexus this semester and coping with experimenting so I didn't actually want to gouge my eyes out. I will mention that as sloppy as the guys are l feel like they have some endearing features, which I can appreciate.