Jeff Shapiro

Twenty-Two Ways of Clay
A National Ceramics Invitational
Curated by Gary C. Hatcher
October 26th, 2001-January 8th, 2002
The Meadows Gallery
Cowan Fine & Performing Arts Center
The University of Texas at Tyler
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Jeff Shapiro - Artist Statement

I want to challenge and be challenged, inspire and be inspired, move when I feel moved, feel the passion to create as a response to what I see, hear, touch, smell and taste.

My work evolves due to internal as well as external influences. I find as my years advance that certain experiences, images from my past lie dormant within me and occasionally rise to my consciousness and nurture me as food for creative thought. Externally I find if I leave myself open to unplanned events, that there is occasion to come upon a new direction of work discovered perhaps through an inadvertent step in a familiar process. For example, cutting away angular portions of clay for a particular series and 'seeing' the unused pieces when stacked, as a new entity and impetus to begin a new body of work.

The newest work is more sculptural in essence. Though predominantly making work in the wood fire genre, I am eager to experiment with mixed media as well as a wider spectrum of ceramic surfaces including but not exclusive to wood firing. I choose not to be limited to a small corner of space that 'defines' who I am and what I must make. I am at a point in my personal time line that crosses back and forth between the realm of utilitarian function and sculpture.