SUBMISSION: Humpback Whale Bowl by Rick Clark

I am in large part a self-taught potter. I was primarily a painter throughout school, but it wasn’t until I started teaching in northern New Hampshire that I really delved into this medium. Sometime around 2007 my sculpted pots came into being. I had been considering the possibilities of throwing and altering forms, breaking away from purely functional work, and, inspired by a student, I took a vase I had just thrown and began manipulating it from the inside, producing the basic form of an elephant head and trunk with sockets for the tusks and eyes which I then formed separately and added on. I found this manipulation exciting. Since that time I have explored other animal forms – great apes, cetacea, sea turtles, etc. Ideas keep flowing and expanding, and I see an unlimited horizon for future work. I have always loved and cared for the natural world and hope that my work will reflect this and help to raise others’ awareness of the need to preserve wilderness and wildlife.