Artist Statement
The first 20 years of my almost 50 years of working with clay was almost exclusively various lines of wheel thrown items. Ultimately, my wheelthrowing has always been drawn to pieces intended to hang on a wall.
The most popular example being my large terracotta platters glazed in black with colorful fish. Perhaps I'm a frustrated painter or something, because even my newest changes in my work insist on hanging on the wall.
Wheelthrowing is very limiting in terms of size, which is one reason I'm enjoying applying the same glazes and techniques of glaze application to tiles. The scale is almost limitless, I have done shower walls the same the same as my platters, with colorful fish on black. I'm most excited about my newest work, I've designed a line of high relief tiles which surround with a cut and glazed tile frame and equip it to hang on the wall. These high relief tiles are designed with the high relief image connecting to itself through the grout line to provide a continuous running accent which can be used as backsplashes or as feature strips amongst field tiles.
Michael Scrivens
