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Refrigerator Magnets

Cremation Urns

"World's Best" Mugs

Cabinet Knobs

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with Vince Pitelka

Bio

Building my New Kiln

Kiln Building Page 2

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My Personal Guarantee

Each of my pieces,
From the least to the greatest,
Passes from my hands to yours
Absoloutely "brim full" with
The very finest Meaning
I can bring to it
At no additional charge.
These are my Prayers,
Crytallized in Form.

For me, our every act as human beings, living out our daily lives, has ritual significance. Our universe contains far more meaning, magic and mystery than what we normally perceive.

Working with clay I attempt to manifest some sense of this greater reality both in the process and the product of my efforts. This goal has been fairly constant for more than four decades, and throughout that period there have been moments and pieces that approach it more closely than others. In just the last few years I feel I've had some major breakthroughs in the consistency with which my work approaches the best that I can do. It's difficult to say to what degree this is a product of the development of my skills versus the maturation of my being. Certainly there are elements of both, and both have evolved slowly and at times painfully over the years. I know that my best work only comes when I'm willing and able to bring my whole self and all my accumulated skills and knowledge to it. Doing this consistently is more of a challenge than one might think.

All the skill, all the best intention, and all the fortuitous blessings of the fire can only take a lump of clay so far. It depends upon a magical resonance for what is offered to be received. Ultimately it is in the hands of the receiver, the eyes of the perceiver, to hear the muted voices of my empty forms, and fill them with meaning.

- Michael McDowell