Robin Kline

Clay has a life of its own. As a potter, I love to interact with the clay's vitality. The process of throwing, forming a pot on the wheel, completely consumes me; I find true joy in refining forms to create finished pottery that can add pleasure to everyday living and special occasions. What I strive for in my work, is to maintain a sense of the process in the finished pieces and to overcome the dichotomy between the fluidity and plasticity of the process of throwing pots and the permanence and often static quality of finished pieces. The phrase that characterizes my esthetic is to achieve “movement in stillness”. A fellow potter presented me with a challenge to describe my work in five adjectives. The first and most basic is function. All of my work is meant to serve a function and to be used. The next is instinctive. My work comes from within me in an instinctive, non-cerebral way. It is not that I don't think about them, but the process is very basic and essential to who I am. My pots are also organic. By that, I mean that they relate to natural patterns and biologic rhythms. Surfaces are not graphic but rather I derive my inspirations from patterns and forms in nature—designs the tide makes in the sand, the bark of a tree, the colors of the sunset, the shape of a gourd. My pieces are also exuberant, full of joyous enthusiasm to reflect the joy and unreserved energy I feel in making them. Finally, they are audacious. I fearlessly take chances in making my pottery and I hope each piece reflects that verve and originality.