First, connection, my Instagram: @andygravesstructures which is mostly just photos of finished work. I like it because it’s easy to open and show people what I’m doing. Facebook: Andy Graves Structures is something more since we can have more meaningful text and video there.
Introduction to Andy
Ceramicist
2012-present
Spent roughly 1 year learning clay hand building.
Had 3 years of slipcasting when I learned the basics of plaster mold making. I made a lot of molds with just about anything I could get my hands on to test myself and push the limits of plaster. Also learned the basics of working with slipcasting clay.
Somewhere around the end of 2015 I started inventing my modular mold making systems. During the last 4 years I have been focusing most of my attention on developing my processes with modular molds. Have been making what would be considered fine art with a hint of semi-functional collectable design.
Artist Statement
I’m an Outsider Artist. Had to figure it all out as I’ve gone along. My building experience hasn’t hurt me though.
I have developed some enjoyable processes. I love making my ceramic work. I have complicated mold building techniques utilizing urethane and silicone rubbers. Epoxies, resins, hydrocal, wood, concrete, plexiglass…I don’t care, if it occurs to me that I could use some material to help my process I just do it. This is where the building experience and maybe a builders attitude totally helps.
My work for the last several years and the foreseeable future is slipcast ceramics. Every one of my pieces was made in a mold as a monolithic piece.
In terms of context and the “why”. It’s personal. My work has a devotional aspect related to my study and meditational practice. The vocabulary of the work reads as timeless to me.
Strong structural elements and intense, minute detail are important to me so each piece is individual and has a personality of it’s own. Yet, they are porcelain and many elements are fragile. To me this creates tension and tends to be energizing. Not really masculine or feminine-some mix of them and also something that is neither.
I love my processes. They are slow, exacting, fail more times than I like to admit but keep a part of my mind constantly working. I work on 3-10 design ideas at a time in my mind. Jumping from one to another freely and in a lovely inner movie set. I sketch and occasionally make marquette’s, but it’s mostly mental. If l’m stressed or bored, off I go inside to work. My true happy place.