"What/Why" (2009) earthenware 22.5" diameter, 7.5" deep
My sculptures and vessels are highly autobiographical. This does not mean they are about events in my life, but they do involve thoughts I have had and influences I have experienced. They reflect aspects of working with materials that I have learned and grown fond of since I was 13 or 14 years old, and ideas that I developed about objects, philosophy, language and imagery. Significant influences include the linguistic philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, the American pragmatism of William James, Neolithic and early classical Chinese and Japanese pottery and calligraphy, the pottery of the southwest American Indians, the wood carving of the northwest Indians, and the stone carving of the Mayans. Since 1997, I have created twenty-five sculptures, a series of "big heads."	In college, I studied with abstract expressionists and minimalists, political and linguistic philosophers. In graduate school, I studied with imagistic artists. I believe I learned from all of them. I have also had the good fortune to grow up in the northwest United States and to visit sites in China and Mexico where some of the ancient pottery and carved forms were made which have influenced my work and thought. I hope to visit more in the future. Artists’ concepts and palettes are tremendously influenced by their visual environment and that’s certainly true for me.
The heads pay homage to modernist sculpture by Constantin Brancusi, Tang dynasty and later Buddhist sculptures from China, Olmec figures from Central Mexico, and the pictographic languages of China and other locales. They harken back to vessels I made in the early 1970s and deal with the concept of what it means to know something, or to believe that you know something. These themes are carried out in earthenware wall hangings as well. The earthenware forms are fired two or more times to cone 04 using slips, underglazes, and clear as well as opaque textured glazes. They are also carried out in porcelain bowls, fired to cone 10 using slips, textured and gloss glazes.	all artwork, titles, and text in this site copyright: Robert Milnes Arbitrary Forms 1800 Palace Court Corinth, TX 76210 940 497 4191 email
Karma 2004 earthenware 44"h