Originally from Berkeley, California. Growing up, his artistic nature was encouraged through arts and crafts. Working with pen and ink through his adolescence it has been more functional mediums that have captivated his attention as an adult. Finding inspiration in the natural world that surrounds us. Seeing the seasons change while digging in the earth and working with plants, playing with the raw elements found in ceramics is a natural fit.
Many of the pieces that Josh designs and builds have a strong asian influence and find their roots in the ‘mingei’ movement of Japan and Korea. Potters such as Shoji Hammada, Kawai Kanjiro, and Bernard Leach are a few of the notable potters that have lain the groundwork and produced works of beauty for daily usage.
Form and function are tightly entwined while surface decoration becomes the main focus of the works. “To loose oneself within the piece while still feeding the body through the daily, mundane task of eating and drinking is the goal. Not to say that every encounter must be significant but to make it available without interfering with the task at hand is the goal.”
Josh works with several different firing techniques:
Wood fired pottery where the work containing no exterior glaze will spend 40 plus hours in an Anagama kiln and take all its decoration from the wood ash.
Soda firing, also a high fire technique. At temperatures of 2300 degrees f Soda ash is introduced into the kiln to reacting with clays and glazes to form dynamic surface textures.
Electric firings, a mid fire technique. Although more common these days due to its cost effectiveness the static look of electric firings is overcome through glaze chemistry and slow cooling which induces micro crystallization of certain raw materials providing a rich and dynamic surface.
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