My platter which is entitled, "Please Enjoy", has sinking or sloping movement about it. I wanted the head to appear as though it was dripping or oozing off of the table that it rests on. This dripping effect is also repeated in grotesque dripping of the mucus below the creature's nose. I wanted the color to be realistic to the flesh tones of a human, and I incorporated elements of grey, white, and blue to denote a feeling of death or rotting flesh. I used a swatch from a burlap bag to get a rough texture to again indicate a feeling of the viewer not wanting to touch the platter that they could eat off of in theory. In terms of scale, I wanted the head to be slightly smaller than human size, but the tongue to be exagerated and overpowering to make the viewer feel a sense of being overwhelmed.
The concept of this piece is related to rethinking the idea of eating off of something or using something in the traditional sense. Actually, the idea came from the fact that in my creative writing class, we were asked to write a poem from the perspective of an object. And, since I was already thinking about platters and plates for ceramics class, I wrote a poem from the perspective of a plate. I realized that the poem actually had a very sad and pathetic sort of tone to it. For some reason, I considered the plate as a used and abused object that felt worthless when the person was done using it, and it was left with the other crusty plates in the sink. So, I suppose that I wished to empower the plate and make the viewer feel a sense of weakness when confronted with the idea of eating off of my platter. The platter is definiately disgusting and I believed that by turning the tables on the viewer, it would make them reconsider how they use everyday objects.
I built this platter with slabs and this took a lot of restrain and patience compared to the way I usually work. SInce I tend to work rather large, I usually just sculpt and when everything is finished, I cut the piece down the middle, and hollow out the vessel. However, In this case, I believe I learned a lot and will use the slab technique again. While it is slightly more time consuming, I believe that in the end, the piece stayed in tact and was much easier to get into the kilm.
I am very much influenced by the work of Robert Arneson. I think that my platter does possess a sense of humor much like the work of Arneson. And, through Arneson's humor, if one chooses to investigate further, they will find that the ideas he talks about through that humor are actually extremely deep and very unique. I always and interested in artists who are able to utilize humor in an very intelligent and innovative way.