Bob Dixon - Ceramics
"My work uses traditional construction and finishing methods to create a strong formal power. This is due to the use of tradition as balanced against more original concepts. A balance between structure and spontaneity, the works are organic and free flowing with sculptural lines. The duality of past and present are revealed in a re-interpretation of traditional ceramics.
The presence of the work is one of form and surface in balance without one overpowering the other. Spontaneous constructions expressing something in a formal sense. There is an aim at innovation of format and structure strong enough to relate to my own assurances. I concentrate on the forming of the work into which the surface becomes united, and thus a rhythm of the parts displayed. The work then displays the sense of an ordered system and movement. Even when entirely spontaneous, the work confronts me with a willed order and form becomes the aesthetic concept. Nothing is lost in the constitution of it. I work each piece of clay with one idea, emotionally expressing the passion I have at the moment. Awareness of it originates in the psychological experiences of pain and pleasure. With me much of the final results lies in the manipulation of the elements through visual techniques. The contrast of tone in the work is as vitally important as the process of seeing." |