The Abstract Craftsman

Artist Statement
My work is a cathartic auto ethnographic study of identity within cultural experience and cross-cultural experience. A look into why it matters and what can be gathered when looking into one’s own cultural experience.
I am a cultural orphan, someone who has left their cultural background at a young age, to grow up in a cultural background unknown to them. Some individuals simulate quite well to a different culture and sometimes there will be a distance that develops either between the mother culture or distance that develops between the new excepted culture and you. This is my experience. The distance for me was between my mother culture. I never felt connected to my mother culture. On family visits to relatives as a kid, I often felt quite at a distance from my cousins. They all spoke fluent English and fluent Norwegian, while I could only speak English and a little bit of Norwegian. My vessels and compositions are an attempt to reconnect with my mother culture. Grasping for cultural memories that I don’t know if I have anymore or whether I ever had.
All of these pieces are made with the principles of formalism in mind, weight, shape, balance and form. Formalism allows for the vessel to speak for itself. Deviating from formalism I’ve created deviant forms, vessels that have been cut or changed to question some of these principles of formalism. The reasoning for this is to create differing identities within my work. My cultural orphans.

(Bottle) bottles are a form that I love. They have shape that is pretty much universally recognisable, everyone everywhere needed something to hold water to drink from. With these two glasses ( satin black and a snowflake crackle) it can really show how curves, shape and form can lead to utility and function. Also I just think they’re super fun to throw. There’s always something fun about throwing a tall form.

Much love,
Marcus

Things are coming to an end. Final preparations are done, now it’s just setting things and planning what to do next.

I’ve been talking photos of all my work and I’ve noticed the progress I’ve made since this time a couple of years ago. Strides were made into good directions.

Much love,
Marcus

Recently I’ve been look back at some of my old work, remembering how I made certain vessels. Looking for how certain movements have been captured in stone and glass.

I try not to be too high brow with speech as I find it to be exclusionary , when I first came to university everyone was talking about all this stuff and I had no idea what they were on about. And although you learn about those subjects and things develop, you even find yourself talking like they do. I still feel uncomfortable about talking that way. I don’t know , might be in my own head.

Either way, Looking at old pots is fun, remembering people and situations that happened at that time.

Much love people