Robert Bosscher

BFA Artist Statement

March, 2007

I feel there is a cadence to working with clay that is unlike any other medium. This is not only time spent in repetition and practice, honing one's technique, but also in the very cycle the works are produced. By its nature, clay requires a slower paced approach than a more immediate medium. The clay must be worked in specific stages if desired results are to be achieved, and only through repetition and practice are those stages discovered. As an artist who works mainly in the medium of ceramics, this means paying attention to the craft and technical aspects that allow me to most effectively express the conceptual problems I am dealing with. Whether I am working in vessel forms or in more sculptural directions, there has to be an understanding of the character of the clay in order for me to use it completely.

Much of what I do is personal. Both functional vessels and sculptures are driven by my responses to individuals. In both of these directions of work, the use of the hand in creating the artwork becomes very important. The works are not mass produced and there is the mark of the artist on each piece, be it a thumbprint or a signature. The work unfolds in a careful way through a process that cannot be rushed or forced. While I may use the wheel as a tool to create vessels, there is still the measured pace of the hand working to create the form. I use different firing, glazing and construction methods, with the intention of giving each work an approachable quality. For me, the hand directs the tempo of the work while giving voice to ideas.  

Ceramics also connects craft traditions of the past to the present. In the same way the creating of the work has its own pace, understanding the identity of others is revealed through a process of building relationships that cannot be hurried. Historically, potters have worked together doing tasks which an individual alone could never accomplish. There is a sense of community gained in working toward a common goal through loading a kiln and feeding the fire. It is this idea of the importance of the individual through the group that I try to bring to my work. When the hand and the idea come together I feel art is at its fullest.