Mat Rude
Ceramics
Portfolio - Translations
The weathered beauty of the work speaks of secret places and the arcane symbols that mark them. Throughout our lives we discover places that give us comfort, escape, or solitude. The current body of work with its eroded textures and subtle perforations represents the sanctuaries in which we seek refuge. As time passes, we may lose or outgrow those places just as the relationships we develop that take us to or make us leave them also transform. The form and surface of the work is also reflective of my conversation with the material and a record of the firing process. The textures and surface treatments are derived from utilizing basic properties of various clay bodies, for example how clays tear, break, or weather. The end result is to have an object that can exist as an artifact of not only the process and energy that went into its creation, but also of the history of the medium. Hopefully the viewer can allow that energy to radiate by finding something new in the piece with each glance.