|
This
exceptionally talented young artist, truly embodies the sentiments of
the quote by Collette Brichant found on our home page: "In today's
world of mass production, there remain those men and women who work with
their hands according to ancient techniques...They give themselves to
their craft by vocation, less for material gain than for the esthetic
order they find there.
AJ
Collins comments, "my present work in three-dimensional visual forms
began when I found common threads
between the visual and written arts, especially poetry. The practices of
making earthenware vessels and the oral tradition of poetry predate
modern civilization, thus their practice today binds us with a primal,
essential human behavior and self-expression that is rare or fleeting in
today's boisterous and posturing society.
A
pivotal element of these practices is their function, both in the making
and in the made thing. The making of both teaches concentration,
patience, and cultivates skill. The made thing becomes external to the
artist and is used by others, either by practical application of it
(using the bowl to eat from, using the poem to learn), or by
appreciation for the process of making that the artist underwent.
Hopefully we've all been involved in some step of this process; to make
and to use is to be essentially human."
 Currently,
AJ is working a lot with the Woodland technique. "Woodland pots
are, generally, prehistoric pots from what is now Maryland and Virginia
that were flat-bottomed and slumped due to their still-developing
technology--I'm trying to emulate that style with modern technology by
using the forms I carve, particularly for the deeper plates."
In the
spirit of these sentiments, AJ has learned and continues to make bold
progress with his art by consistently working, absorbing as much as he
can from both the past and current evolving traditions of ceramic art.
AJ Collins
Ceramic Art and Pottery |
