Jeff Picou: Cracked

On view:	July 7–August 26, 2018
Opening reception:	Saturday, July 14, 7–9 PM

Jeff Picou’s work explores the duality between the aspects he can control and those he leaves to chance. He is tempted to try to dictate the outcome of every element of a creation, but he finds innate beauty in letting the forces within each firing exert their own influences over the final artwork.

His shard vessels and platters featured in this exhibition are created through careful crafting of symmetrical, geometric forms, that are left to chance through surfaces that are developed through alternative firing processes such as raku and saggar firing. The process of fracturing the piece conveys the thought that often in ceramics, as in life, the cracks are not only part of the story, but part of the beauty.

Jeff Picou is a teacher at El Dorado High School in Placentia, CA.