Nate Cassie: A Knife Out of a Cloud: San Antonio

"The clouds are definitely a theme that tends to run through this newer work. They signify transition or change: clouds moving across the sky. Depending on what they look like, it's a sign of change in the weather. So I feel that that analogy applies to contemporary life, like our current moment. People may be a little uncertain. These three years of pandemic and we are coming out of it. There's change happening and it's exciting, but also scary. You are not sure, you do not know, what the future holds for you. I think most of it from my view has a more positive spin than not,or hopeful I guess you could say." -Nate Cassie

"Stan and Ollie  have a bodily feel to them. When I finished I was looking at them together, one is more rotund and the other is taller and thinner. There is an old comedy duo named Laurel and Hardy. Stan and Oliver were their first names and it got stuck in my head, that is all I can refer to them as. The idea of a physical body, or embodying, in a ceramic vessel, even the way they sound when you talk into them, they are resonant because of the material. " - Nate Cassie

"While the clay body is a commercial product the slips and glazes are ones that I have made myself using raw materials. To me they are like mountain tops in the clouds - atmospheric and also weathered. They also are geological like something dug from the earth. They are in part inspired by the snowstorm and freeze we had in 2020 which killed much of my garden. The vessels are vase forms like one might use to display a large floral arrangement, but they are empty which speaks of loss or mourning. I recently revisited this vessel that broke. I used a Juci style repair, using pewter staples. Juci is a Chinese style repair that predated the Japanese Kintsugi style."- Nate Cassie