Marc Hudson

Fascination with clay stretches back in time more than 20,000 years to some of early man’s exploration of his environment (Xianrendong Cave, Jiangxi Province, China).  The first time one of our ancient ancestors scooped up a handful wet clay and squeezed it through her fingers, she manifested the first extruder. And when fire is added to the mix, near rock hardness and durability is imparted. 

Clay vessels became a way of carrying or offering or trading foods, ideas, and artistry across cultures and time and distance. Today, we can extrude a carefully plasticized clay body, driven by code programing to a 3D printer. A delicate tea cup can be emailed to a fabrication shop somewhere across the world, or streamed somewhere across space to an orbiting station or terra-based exploration settlement (the signatures for glauconitic-like clays, prevalent on Earth, appear to have been found on Mars) for production in time for High Tea.

My own fascination with clay began as a child in the family garden and then in the museums of the American South West displaying Ancient Puebloan artifacts and chards. Here was a vessel someone, hundreds or thousands of years ago, had fashioned into a vessel from wet paste clay, delving into her imagination for ideas and feelings and finally consigned it to fire, and transformed it, through local metamorphism into a durable pot. 

I, too, use clay to represent my interpretations of imagery, ideas and feelings, be it vessel, sculptural, or amorphous in nature. The malleable clay, the changing shape, the glaze materials, and high heat all conspire with imagination to express a snapshot into my creative process. 

“I hope my creations stir you enough that you will want to look at them often and contemplate their shapes, textures, and colors. Perhaps you will connect a memory with them, offer them as gifts or keep them for yourself, but think of them as a cornerstone for a feeling, a recollection or an event and let them move you!”

“Artist rides on a horse named Craftsman”

Marc Hudson