Octopods Cup

Tim Christensen

Environmental Sgraffito Art in Porcelain by Tim Christensen Contemporary Nature-inspired Ceramic Octopods Cup Midcoast Maine Artisan Store The Good Supply Pemaquid Made in USA
  • Environmental Sgraffito Art in Porcelain by Tim Christensen Contemporary Nature-inspired Ceramic Octopods Cup Midcoast Maine Artisan Store The Good Supply Pemaquid Made in USA
  • Environmental Sgraffito Art in Porcelain by Tim Christensen Contemporary Nature-inspired Ceramic Octopods Cup Midcoast Maine Artisan Store The Good Supply Pemaquid Made in USA
  • $160.00

A tangle of tentacles, an undulation of octopuses. There is not really a collective noun since the octopus is typically a solitary creature - unlike a shoal of squid. Nature is always surprising us however. A few years back a community of octopuses were discovered off the coast of Australia.

Dubbed Octopolis, scientists have discovered dens made of shells and debris and a surprising number of eight legged inhabitants. The community has all the trappings of local drama, disputes over territory, finding a suitable mate in a neighbor, home takeovers. It’s hopefully a little more intense than our land issues, but we can appreciate the passion.

By looking upon this graceful form covered in creatures swimming this way and that, one can only wonder. Are they friends, lovers, enemies? I’m sure they know something we don’t. Let’s keep watching and hope to find out.

- Measures 3" x 3.75"
- Wood-fired porcelain
- Sgraffito
- Wash by hand

Ceramic artist Tim Christensen divides his time between Portland and Downeast Maine. At his off-grid studio Tim finds inspiration for his porcelain pieces. Schools of herring, flocks of chattering songbirds, and all matter of sea life are skillfully carved on the surfaces of his hand-thrown and constructed forms.

Tim began working in clay in 1999, and he has been etching his black and white pieces since 2004. Using the centuries-old decorative technique of Sgraffito, Tim carves intricate worlds teeming with life and energy. Firing much of his work at Watershed Center for Ceramic Art in Newcastle, Maine, Tim finds that the collaborative Midcoast institution's salt and wood-fire kilns add variety and allow for the possibility of happy accidents, which are common in the ceramic world and offer welcome play on the artist's meticulous carvings.

Tim has shown his work around the world and recently completed his first book. Written with co-author Carri Lange, “Reflect, Adapt, and Persevere” he tells of his travels and thoughts on environmental philosophy.

From the Artist:

My work is about the ever-changing web of relationships that surround us. Individuals make contact to create relationships, relationships collide to create systems. These systems change over time in response to the other systems around them. I envision my world as an infinite collection of active counterparts, individuals symbiotically wriggling and moving and jostling for space and resources.

In this sea of systems, of relationships, I sit and try to untangle it, sit and try to communicate what I see changing, being created, or disappearing into the past.

This is why I work in our most durable medium, porcelain, and in our longest unbroken historical record, pottery. My work, functional in the information I convey, will be understandable to anyone with an eyeball and the ability to think abstractly.

My goal is to make work which still speaks clearly in 10,000 years, and more importantly, to convey the complexity and richness of the world in which I am most fortunate to live.

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