Dan Russo

 

Firing an anagama kiln is a technical process threaded with concrete objectives necessary for a successful firing. This is just a framework upon which you can build surfaces so varied and naturally beautiful that it’s hard to believe it’s just wood ash bound with clay. The subtleties of the way one can manipulate certain variables in firing can be honed for a lifetime. It is a process that can only be fully understood by getting a feel for how fire and energy act in this closed system.


Key factors structurally and visually exist in these works but that is just the framework upon which chance and instinct can act. There is a great dynamic in having to relinquish control and let another part of your brain express itself. When these two minds come together in the right proportions an interesting form is created.


At the end of five to eight days of firing around the clock I think to myself why on earth am I doing this…and when can I do it again.