All purchased artworks will be shipped after the end of the exhibition on December 9th.
Paul Heckler, Cup, 2023, earthenware, soda-fired, 3" x 3.5" x 3.5"
I make functional pottery from red earthenware—a clay that speaks of brick and the vernacular architecture of many of the places I’ve lived. My approach to creating thrown forms, long rooted in architecture and the history of modern and utilitarian design, has recently begun to shift. Instead of generating forms in the abstract and then applying surfaces to them, I’ve recently been developing forms that highlight, disrupt, and otherwise engage surface designs.
In creating surface designs, I deploy imagery abstracted from photographs and momentary encounters with architecture and randomly occurring patterns like ice crystals on a windshield. Repetition, forced perspective, directionality, and color are interesting variables that allow for endless variation between individual pieces and within sets.
Eroded paint and the ghosts of decades-old signs inspire my muted palette and inform the layers of texture, slip, and underglaze. Soda firing brings these layers together and creates a weathered patina—giving each pot an artifact-like quality.
I studied ceramics at Bates College but took a 13-year break to pursue a career working for some of NYC’s most beloved cultural and civic nonprofits before restarting my studio practice. I’ve studied at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and the Penland School of Craft and am currently pursuing my MFA at the University of Arkansas. Moving south from New York City was a major change of pace, but I’ve loved getting to know the deep craft traditions here, as well as the permeating sense of place.