Henry James Haver Crissman
The Intimacy of functionality and the Implication of interaction drive my work in clay. This historically rich material, grounded in traditions and techniques, asks for a consciousness of actions and a unification of people that is often lacking in our individualistic society. Wood fired pottery, with its exposed and laborious process, seems to carry an inherently understood context that I find so contemporarily relevant to our social and environmental conditions.
My work is an investigation of communication through different processes and permutations of functional pottery. In creating, manipulating and re-presenting these most basic tools for consumption I hope to evoke considerations and applications that may positively influence our lives and our actions. The forms and Images I offer and explore are distillations of the rhythms and structures we are part of, and the utopian symbiotic solutions I imagine. The act of firing as an accessible, united and proactive performance has moved to the forefront of my thoughts. I am pursuing communal enrichment though the processes of making, presenting and dispersing pottery. It appears affective as it crosses cultures, demographics, and languages, but also inexhaustible as promises to continually take on new forms and situations.
Upcoming Events
We built and fired “The Salty Dog”, The Detroit Noborigama!
Fortress Studios, 7332 Oakland St. Detroit, MI 48211
View the work and follow along with us as we begin to realize the full potential and impact of “The Salty Dog” on the Detroit Noborigama blog!
www.detroitnoborigama.tumblr.com
Thank you so much to all of you who have supported the project and who helped make it a sucess on Kickstarter.com! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/henrycrissman/the-salty-dog-detroits-noborigama-wood-kiln?ref=live
2012 NCECA Regina Brown Undergraduate Student Fellowship
2012 NCECA National Student Jurried Exhibition
Jacob Lawrence Gallery, University of Washington
Seattle, WA, 98195
Dates of the NSJE in Seattle: March 6-31, 2012
Dates of NCECA in Seattle: March 28-31, 2012
Also, I’m teaching “Eating and Drinking Vessels” at Sugar Hill Clay here in Detroit, MI, It’s the newest and coolest clay studio in town!
http://sugarhillclay.wordpress.com/