Wes Brown
Artist Statement
Through clay I explore the concept of identity as the bringing together of varied experiences into a multilayered whole. I combine wheel throwing and hand building to contrast two methods of handling. Using the malleability and immediacy inherent to clay I use both my body and tools to beat, slam, and roughen rolled slabs to create heavily textured parts. Using improvisation and intuition, I cut, butt, and join the rough slabs together. The wheel provides me with forms that are smooth and uncomplicated. I take the wheel thrown form and cut and key it into the textured slabs. I make no attempt to reconcile the distinctly different surfaces when crafting the pieces allowing the surfaces to speak to their history of handling. With all its contrasting parts, each overstepping boundaries one into the other, the work stands ready to serve.
Artist Bio
Wesley Brown is a ceramic artist from Dayton, OH living and working in State College, PA. Brown has lived, studied, and worked between the midwest and east coast. He presently works as an Assistant Professor at Penn State University-University Park. Through clay Brown conveys both struggle and triumph through cracked surfaces, striking silhouettes, and bold compositions. His most recent explorations have been in the making of functional wares that are a dynamic meeting of hand building and wheel throwing.