Richard Walbart

 My work is a coming back to, a return to something left behind for awhile, something important but not yet understood, anticipated, the chance now here. Through the efforts of building the skills over 15 years or so there is now more of a seeing where I could not see.

There is a deeper understanding where I did not know.There are sounds, whole conversations, I did not suspect.
There is a driving curiosity and a thrill I rarely knew. 

I once heard that one spends 10 years learning, perfecting, the basic skills of clay…then the rest of one’s life artistically violating those basic rules, now is the time for me. Specifically I engage the challenge of rendering every day eating and drinking vessels with the natural beauty of the materials at hand….clay, the glazes, the numerous methods of firing those materials, watching evolutions of those forms, breaking or pushing through the expected to some chance of beauty and a mindful consumption. Working the paradox between control and a giving up…always open to the happy accident.