There is an inherent paradox when working with so responsive a material as clay. Traces of touch - fingerprints, knuckle marks - are formed, moment by moment, with relentless fidelity. Such intimate contact of hand and clay remains far beyond the process, beyond even the life of the artist; it is a permanent record of impermanence. Susannah Israel, "first person plural" PUBLICATIONS "Firing A Legacy" catalog essay, Pence Gallery, Davis, CA "Deep Impressions: Richard Akers", New Ceramics Magazine, May/June 2008 "Working Big: Sculpting Industrial Clay Pipe", Ceramics Today online article, 2005 "In Pursuit of Beauty", Studio Potter Network, 2002 "Woodstoke 2000", Ceramics Technical, Issue 12 from perception to realization... The visual parade of urban life is a potent source of inspiration for my art work. Crisp and vivid or fleeting and fugitive, a constant montage of images provides me with rich reference material while at work in the studio. My approach to my materials is a rash combination of practiced skill and reckless disregard for established conventions. I willingly sacrifice lifelike anatomy to questions of composition and gesture. I use both high and low-fire clays. I am also a confirmed alchemist, always testing new glaze formulas for the perfect surface. My artistic practice is a fusion of planning, process, and discovery. I begin with a series of drawings to develop a concept; I make notes about clay color, texture and finishes; when working directly with the material, I am alert to its expressive possibilities. I want my work to convey a sense of this journey from perception to realization. Susannah Israel, "Light, Shadow & Form", William Merrill Gallery My artwork records the constantly shifting set of my responses as an artist to my world. My subjects are all images, in clay, of pieces of my life. Human experience starts with our perceptions; our experiences are set into memory, which itself then changes and is utterly subjective. The work is at its best for me when it is your story too. The figure takes the center stage, as narrator, actor and symbol. I use everything, including nontraditional materials in clay - paint, metal, found objects, - when they serve the work best. I use everything in the ceramics toolbox, too. Slipcast, press molds, hand built, and wheel-thrown methods all have relevance in my approach. Temperature ranges and firings from low-fire to raku and glossy polychrome meet wood-fire, stoneware and layered slips in my work. In class I tell students "Use all your options," and I actually do take my own advice. Susannah Israel, statement for Pence Gallery