Teapots
The teapot is really a theme for experimenting with to see where my imagination can lead with design possibilities. It has been a design challenge for potters and others for more than a thousand years. Chinese potters of the Sung Dynasty, (969-1279) are thought to have created the first teapots. Over the centuries potters have delighted and struggled with their artistic creativity on the endless varieties that the teapot form offers. Contemporary artists have even stretched the boundaries further. It’s no wonder why there are so many teapot collectors throughout the world. The Kamm Teapot Foundation has the largest Teapot collection in the world with over 17,000 teapots. Highlights include most of the great ceramists. I am pleased to have a piece in that collection.
My teapots and other ceramic works are informed by, (besides ceramic tradition and Japanese ceramics), many of the movements and styles in modern art history; The Bauhaus, Art Deco, Geometric Abstraction, Modern Architecture, Mid Century Modernism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, artists; Joseph Albers, Rothko, Frank Stella, Ken Price, Ron Nagel, John Coltrane, Matisse and Picasso just to name a few.
Athough many of my teapot shapes wouldn’t be very practical to use they do hold liquid and it is possible to use them, I’m sure that most people will display them only as decorative art.
