My ceramic pieces reveal the responsive marks and forms in clay by contrasting those freer gestures with more controlled elements. I work with formal and decorative contrasts in shape, color and surface to explore the extensive possibilities of the medium. The ceramics relate to similar formal ideas in my paintings and drawings. I work with in the connections and contrasts between studied, controlled elements, which can be seen as rational and measured, and more spontaneous, less consciously manipulated marks and shapes. In some of the pieces the juxtapositions are evident in the formal elegance of the white, wheel-thrown clay contrasted with hand-built layers of other clays, some colored with oxides. Often the exteriors are unglazed, although in the Enchantment series the contrasts are accented by bright, glazed surfaces. The pieces often start with a wheel-thrown base with a tooled foot or a slab-built base. I build from this form, searching for passages of surface interest, adding and subtracting to achieve the most revealing contrasts.

—Elizabeth Strasser