"Salad Day's" is an annual event at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, ME. I was fortunate enough to be the artist-in residence for the summer of 2009. While there, I was responsible for making the 500+ plates for Watershed's 'Salad Days' event in July 2010. The pieces here represent a small selection of the 500 plates produced during the summer residency.

The scope of the project was large enough that it seemed a unique opportunity to study one of my passions. That is, decoration and surface. I used the 500 plates to engage in a very focused investigation of my decorative aesthetics and to understand what elements of that surface treatment were important, and those which were not. My conclusion is that I love the lyrical marks of a brush more than anything. Brush-work is so dependent on the body and its movements that it can leave the intellect behind, allowing intuition to take over. Unlike printed images or transfers, brush work allows more mutation and changeability within the image. What also resulted was an understanding of the magic of glaze and its alchemical action on the pot with decoration. Glaze allows an element of the 'random' to be introduced. Consequently keeping the brush-work in check, and not allowing it to become merely an over-intellectualized technique.

All plates are made from Watershed's (local) earthenware clay, thrown, slipped, decorated, glazed, and fired to cone 1 oxidation.