CROWS

A few years ago I started creating ceramic birds, which I'd been wanting to do for some time.

My first series were colorful common birds, realistic but simple. Then I fired a couple of the birds using "pit firing" with a wood fire in a large container and the result was a blackened bird which I immediately was drawn to because Crows are one of my favorite birds. The Crow series began although the pit firing was too cumbersome to repeat. Finally I settled on using black clay rather than use glazes.

Crow 1
2017
Terracotta clay pit-fired and fired again
7"H x 10"L
Crow 2
2017
Terracotta clay pit-fired and fired again
7"H x 10"L
Crow 3
2018
Terracotta clay pit-fired and fired again
8"H x 12"L



Crow 4
2017
Terracotta clay pit-fired and fired again with clear glaze
8"H x 12"L
Crow 5
2018
Terracotta clay black underglaze with matt glaze
81/2"H x 13"L
Crow 6
2018
Terracotta with black underglaze and matt glaze
8"H x 13"L

SOLD

Crow 7
2018
Terracotta with black underglaze and matt glaze
8"H x 13"L

SOLD

Crow 8
2018
Terracotta with black underglaze and matt glaze
8"H x 14"L

SOLD

Crow 9
2018
Terracotta with black underglaze and matt glaze
9"H x 10"L
Crow 10
2018
Black stoneware clay

SOLD

Crow 11
2019
Black stoneware
8"H x 12"L
Crow 12
2019
Black stoneware
8"H x 14"L
Crow 13 (view left side)
2019
Black stoneware
9"H x 14"L

Cracked during firing but mostly repaired through second firing.

Crow 13 (view right side)
2019
black stoneware
9"H x 14"L

Cracked during firing but mostly repaired through second firing.

Crow 14 (view left side)
2019
Black stoneware
9"H x 13"L

Damaged in firing, mostly repaired.

Crow 14 (view right side)
2019
Black stoneware
9"H x 13"L

Damaged in firing, mostly repaired.

Crow 15 (view left side)
2019
Black stoneware
9"H x 15"L

Damaged in firing, one side repaired.

Crow 15 (view right side)
2019
Black stoneware
9"H x 15"L

Damaged in firing, one side repaired.

Crow 16
2019
Terracotta with black underglaze, incising, and matt glaze
9"H x 14"L
Twenty-five Crows
2018
Sumi Ink on watercolor paper
8" x 10" each (not including frames)

I began this series looking at a photograph I had taken of a Crow. Each drawing was done rather quickly and I was trying to create the perfect gesture drawing at first but quickly became engaged with just the act of drawing a simple drawing of a Crow. What started out as a quick sketch turned into a repetition where each was both similar and different. I had 25 frames I had picked up at different places so my goal became 25 drawings to fill 25 frames.