Kent Kraus

The artistic forces that drove me in the past as a production potter gave birth to a new series of ceramic sculptures called Desert Bloom. It was the repetitive nature of production pottery that transformed my artistic ability and vision with clay. Over time, this experience lead me to a deeper understanding in to the mysteries of nature and beauty. I began to see objects that would express something beyond themselves. I now could imagine my sculptures as alive and unfolding in a garden of an exotic world.

The sculptures begin with pottery shapes that throughout history have been used for their symbolic nature, rather than their utilitarian function. The pot is no longer a pot, but an abstract form. For example, the “pot” in one of my sculptures represents a bulbous stem of a flower, while in another the female form and spirit expressing its birth.

My idea is to literally hand-build upon these metaphorical shapes, the common forms and movements found throughout nature creating a whole new harmonious expression. Caressing the winds, flowing rivers, sensuous flowers, graceful animals, and the elegance of the human form are a few of my subjects that are interwoven into a new life force. The beauty of each piece is to discover the tension and balance of the object unfolding in its natural growth.

Throughout my twenty-eight years of creating art, I have tried to define my potter’s soul, my integrity, my honor and my life’s passion. The path between reality and the imagination of my soul is the language of art that I choose to express in clay. To be successful as an artist, my work much awaken in the viewer, a response that enables them to “see” beyond the surface of the object and to feel the intimacy of its existence. Only through clay, can I search for a more direct link to the human heart.