2005

I majored in English at the university and the graduate school, and taught Western Civilizations in the Department of National Taiwan Normal University. This humanist background has had a lot to bear on my clay work. Mostly I do ceramic sculpture, to which I apply the glazes my wife, Nadia Shih, has developed.

A man more or less versed in the humanities naturally produces works with literary allusions and moral undertones. I am, however, not that serious. I realize that contemporary artists normally stress form and hence shy away from moral preaching. I, too, emphasize form. I like my plastic forms and glaze colors to appeal to my audience primarily with a sense of beauty in an ambiance of humor. Messages are secondary.

I work by the metaphor, an effective device common to literature and to visual arts. I like to associate one thing with another, or piece together a series of events and episodes on a theme.

The result is often a set of variations marked with a pleasing rhythmic pattern. The stardust series, the panels, the wall plaques, the varieties of fountains…are all examples of such a style.

One hears now and then that so and so does ceramics with a consummate skill. I don’t know what that is. I wonder if that is possible with a ceramist who keeps experimenting on relatively large scales. I happen to be of like temperament of whomever Robert Browning wrote about, “one’s reach must exceed one’s grasp.” Due to variants in construction, glazing and firing process,ambitious projects incur frustrations. Even in pieces that I am happy with I see technical defects, which I fix with “cold” materials. I find comfort in the thought that I have met the challenge.