Stylin' & Profilin'

What about the style of Larry Paul's sculpture? Here's what he has to say: "Whether the piece is free standing or hanging on the wall, I think most people will recognize my art as being a fish or flower, or girl or whatever. All art is a trick: the Mona Lisa isn't really a young woman, she's just paint on a panel. My flowers aren't anything more than fired clay and glaze on a panel, but as with Mona, the viewer sees a flower. Nobody looks at my art and says, 'What is that supposed to be?'

My art is representational and decorative. I suppose I may at some time work in a more abstract manner, but for now, I'm most comfortable with imagery that is recognizable. The decorative part just seems to come naturally, and makes my work easy for people to live with.

The only thing that's unrealistic in my work is the way I play with scale: I make a hummingbird the size of a chicken, for example, or a pansy the size of a dinner plate. Otherwise, my flowers and birds aren't accurate in an Audubon sense, but nonetheless they do look like flowers and birds.

I haven't seen another ceramic artist push clay quite as far as I do. I push until the clay begins to talk back, and then I jump into the dialog and start to have fun. The mutual respect established this way assures that the resulting art looks like clay and what's in my head at the time."

Birds

Flowers