Artist: Steve Roberts

Steve Roberts, MISSOURI

View artist's currently available work

"I choose to create functional pottery because I am fascinated by the idea of communicating not just through sight but also through touch. Use is an important concern in my work, but I try not to view utility in a narrow context. A pot can function well without aspiring to the smooth, regular forms of industrially-pressed hotel china. A pot can be functional without being conventional. My work is functional without implying simplicity, streamlining, production speed, or boredom. I am not trying to move beyond function or to free myself from it but to expand your idea of what a functional pot can be. In my work I try to soften the Apollonian precision of a structured, clearly articulated form by contrasting it with Dionysian elements of swelling, curvilinear volume. My choice of glazes combines with firing decisions to transform an initially structured surface into an atmospheric veil of sublime color. I hope the contrast between classical and romantic elements of form and surface will intensify the experience of both aesthetics by presenting them in the context of their visual opposites."