Prior to glazing plates for the upcoming art show, I finished a set of 8 custom virus plates for a friend, chef Buster Ferris of Port Townsend, WA. He gave me free range of how to glaze them and I chose to play with the design and color scheme of china by keeping the designs around the edges and sticking to a clean blue and white palette.
Buster's Plates, 2015, glazed earthenware, approximately 9”x9”x.5” each
(clockwise from upper left - Norovirus, E. coli, Cholera, Typhoid fever)
For the CAMEO-Houston Emerging Artist Show I wanted to combine some of the experimental drawings I did in April and May with the design of the plates. Once the plates were bisqued, I set up a still life of raw food that is best associated with a particular virus and did a blind drawing of it on the plate in underglaze pencil. Then I used glaze to draw the viruses to form a border as seen in Buster's Plates above. After a clear coat of glaze and a final firing, I used permanent marker to overlay the virus drawing on top of the blind food still life. While I don't believe these plates are the final edition of the Virus Plates, I do think it's a step towards a more concise and meaningful statement through plate design.
Cholera
E. coli