Andy Nasisse

Over the years I have developed methods of working with clay that are meant to bring out the natural qualities of that material and of the process of drying, shrinking, glazing, melting, and firing. By multiple firing, and layering of slips and glazes, I try to make objects that have stratified active surfaces that snap and crackle with energy. I am looking for meaning and content in the dynamics of the process and trying to apply this to my general aesthetic or world view. I am interested in the tension between opposites; between light and dark; male and female; between expansion and contraction; good and evil; organic and geometric; ration and intuition; mind and body; night and day; between our conscious lives and our subconscious self; between matter and spirit. The notion that our lives are bound by a mythic drama that unfolds spontaneously, and that there is an underlying geometry, hidden patterns, and layered meanings to all we see, is a preoccupation that informs much more than just my work. For quite some time now I have been using the figure, the vessel, and the landscape as a primary image (or mythic image) through which I could express some thoughts about the human condition. I have tried to present a unified theme that ties together work that ranges from small scale utilitarian pots to large scale vessels and figures. I work improvisationaly, finding figures in the material, and developing them into an image, or a narrative that seems to have life. I like to think of these figures as part of a family of images that find their way through my hands into the outer world. At their best they present an enigmatic expression, somewhere on the edge between whimsy and fear.