My work has been in a continuous process of evolution and exploration.

Beginning in 2009 I pursued a line of work inspired by early 20th century industrialization held together in my imagination by a storyline of a resourceful man trapped in a collapsed factory who creates what he needs from metal scraps. Photographs of that work are included in theDragon Wells Steam Works (2009 – 2013) portfolio section.

My imagination took off to a future timeframe in an industrial setting populated by robots, or, as I call them, Bucketheads. These steam-powered Bucketheads were designed to maintain themselves after humans became extinct. The Bucketheads are artifacts of human civilization, and, as such, reflect their creators and their culture. TheBucketheads Make the Scene (2013) portfolio section includes photos of some of the first year’s work in the line.

The Buckethead Companions (2014) section depicts many other characters that entered the story and some of the tensions between them. Bucketheads engage in both destructive and hopeful action. Mechanical animals and plants are portrayed, and, live bugs and turtles interact with the Bucketheads. Bunnies became central to the story evolution as good and bad Bucketheads responded differently to them. Trying to protect bunnies, a good Buckethead inadvertently harmed several of them – with dire consequences.

The Bunny Foo Foo and Jack (2015) section includes pots and plots that arose between me and Clayscapes students as well as between me and Periscope followers. The story was being driven by playful conversations as I refined my use of ceramic surfaces as canvas for illustrations.

The pots in A Trip to Mars (2015) are essentially a short story within a larger story. Chuthulu, one of five Bucketheads sent to Mars, became the lone survivor when the mission did not go as planned. In order to explain what went wrong, pots were illustrated with the backstory to the events in More Mars (2016).

All of my work between 2009 and 2015 were finished in wood fires at the4:15 Agama kiln. The work in More Mars was from my first firing of the gas kiln, Baby J. My reasons for “cheating” on the 4:15 Agama are explained in the introduction to the portfolio section.