A Maker's Statement                                                                       HOME

"Trees were so rare in that country, and they had to make such a hard fight to grow, that we used to feel anxious about them, and visit them as if they were persons. It must have been the scarcity of detail in that tawny landscape that made detail so precious."

Willa Cather (1873 - 1947), My Antonia 1918

A couple of sentences lifted from a old book, not even the whole story, but they have hit one of those chords you get now and then when things and events seem to come together auspiciously.

 I began these landscapes as an extension, a progression, of the work I was doing with ceramic vessels and crystalline glazes. I had never really been a potter but the clay seems to feel right in my hands. Most of my explorations have been sculptural, but working in the vessel form has allowed me to concentrate on volume and abstraction. However, it was inevitable that I would return to the sculptural so that I could narrate my mind’s stories rather than make universally familiar objects.

"The landscape, a traditional vehicle of narration, with its wide open categories and manifestations is a fertile platform from which to work.  "Landscapes have a language of their own, expressing the soul of the things, lofty or humble, which constitute them, from the mighty peaks to the smalles of the tiny flowers hidden in the meadow's grass."--Alexandria David-Neel  

“…Expressing the soul of things…”  Yes, that fits.  But also concerned with the people on the land.

  Having moved from a decidedly urban area (Southern California) to the high desert forest of central Arizona, I have been affected by the expanse of the landscape here. Where my perspective was once defined by the ribbons of concrete in my commute and by the allotted space within my office, there is now a larger metric of reference.  It is not only the obviously bucolic, but also the savageness, the rhythms, the jarring juxtapositions of man and nature. There is also a difference in orientation.

 “It is only in appearance that time is a river. It is rather a vast landscape and it is the eye of the beholder that moves.” -Thornton Wilder, The Eighth Day"

So I would suppose that it is the eye of the beholder I’m trying to move. These landscapes, unlike a sketch or painting invite the viewer to hold them, move through the landscape, see it from above and below, from around or through, and from the perspective of what is developed or what is nature. These are invitations to explore. I'll finish this with a last quote from Willa Cather;

 “This mesa plain had an appearance of great antiquity, and of incompleteness; as if, with all the materials for world-making assembled, the Creator had desisted, gone away and left everything on the point of being brought together, on the eve of being arranged into mountain, plain, plateau. The country was still waiting to be made into a landscape.”

These pieces are sparse. More accurately they are concise in their language. This is purposeful and is meant to allow the viewer to populate them with personal flora and fauna, experiences and dreams.

 Tony Reynolds, Maker

  Elements:

The mesa and plain. A landscape, any landscape, has a location, a place upon which it develops. The closed form and crystalline glazed surface establish this locus for me.  These forms give weight to the landscape. Although borne of the vessel these are not potter’s ware rather they are pedestals or platforms for the story. The closed form is somewhat more complex to make, the crystalline glazes more persnickety than typical glazes, but they only give a background to the vignette I am presenting.

            Rather than attempt to create hill and dale, I have chosen at this point to represent the earth in abstract and let the viewer add to it as desired. Where the writer can describe the smell of the loamy soil, the deep cut furrows of the fields or the grit of the desert, I want only to suggest and let the viewer’s personal memories plant the details. I wish to concentrate on a single emotion or thought and not over narrate.

            Trees. The trees I have made here are all cut from metal with a jeweler’s saw. The method or time and work to do this is much less important to me than the fact that I have chosen to render them in silhouette. For emphasis and drama, and in respect and homage, the trees are presented without detail in leaf or twig. My intent is not so much reality as symbol. I prefer the graphic here, the line or flat expanse to the over detailed. If shaded it is with patinas, if delineated it is with the pathway cut with the saw. These are trees of the mind’s eye, abstract, internally familiar, “every-tree” verses a specific.

            Structures.  Like the trees, I have kept the buildings simple. Made of the same clay body they are basic boxes with roof lines. To me there are few variations to the structures we live in. The majority are four-walled, rectilinear, code-compliant structures. The small percentage that aren’t are labeled extreme, avant-garde, quirky, unusual, unique, which is to say, not boring.

            Regardless of those thoughts, these structures are placed on the land, among the trees. They are intrusive and vulnerable at the same time. They attach to the landscape only tenuously. And yet these are our marks within existence. These hold proof we have occupied this space. Arrangements of buildings show we have community, politics and a social presence. Though temporary, they show purpose. Though alien within a billion year old nature, they afford us familiarity and security.

            The structure forms are universally recognizable even as a child’s drawing of home is recognizable. They are without detail but all the elements of house, building, home exist. Their placement on the landscape is important to me. Are they grouped? Is it a single actor on the place? How does it converse with the trees? With other structures?

            Accoutrements. These are the accidentals if you will. The other evidence of humanness. A kite, a swing, a fence. I have a great concern of not interjecting the sweet or cute and so these things are few and included only after much consideration to the execution of the narrative.