Ceramic Sculpture by Makan "Max" Emadi

Emadi on his ceramic sculptures:

I began working on the "Beautiful Monsters" in 2002.  My primary influence at that time was Henry Moore, the celebrated British Modernist sculptor.

The goal with the more than 50 pieces I have created so far has been to comment on the dual nature of man in his paradoxical condition.

A primitive and rapid technique is used in making every pseudo-abstract bust.  Each is made to be unique and without the use of a model.  Every original work is signed and given a common name to humanize him or her. 

Clay is the medium used, which after a "highfire" is at once permanent and strong but also fragile and vulnerable.  The sculptures are finally stained in bronze.

The hope is that each individual of my ceramic sculptures has an internal aesthetic charm masked by a more glaring and obvious external ugliness.  In this way, I view them just like each of us humans; or is the opposite true of most people?