Dan Murphy has twenty six years experience firing wood-burning kilns and recently participated in the Wood Fire TAS 2011 international conference in Tasmania, Australia. He has also conducted visiting artist and wood-firing lectures and been featured in exhibitions at universities and art centers nationally and abroad, including Northern Arizona University, the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in China, Ohio University, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and the Hongik University of Seoul, Korea.
My ceramic vessels are created swiftly and directly on a slow spinning potter’s wheel. I usually work in series, developing one body of work at a time. My goal is to make gestural vessels that reflect my presence in the finished form. This results in families of pots that are inevitably related, yet each piece stands as a unique one-of-a-kind vessel. After the pieces are made most are fired without applied glazes to stoneware temperatures in wood-burning kilns. Colors and textures on the ceramics result from the interaction of wood, fire and clay. My hope is that each successive generation produces a better piece. I feel a connection to contemporary as well as ancient ceramics, and strive to create objects that will withstand the test of time.
