Paul Menchhofer

Through the process of exploring the vessel, ideas are transformed into tangible space. The process is paramount; it is a metaphor for pondering our own creation and like a meditative dance it allows my spirit to wander; automatism unveils a hundred thoughts and visions, the tactile representation becomes a final record of the event. In this exploration through clay and the vessel, I am able to access and retrieve that which is normally intangible.

Dreams, feelings, emotions and visions from my conscious and unconscious worlds are retrieved and translated into visual form. I am drawn to the scale and methods I have chosen because of the intense physical demands of working with massive amounts of clay on the wheel, which revolve as fluid sculptural vessels. I’m also drawn to the allure of the large scale Raku firing process where risk and chance dominate and a state of magic uncertainty, automatism, control, and fate strike a bargain!