Survivors
Helena, Montana
2024
Seeing these sculptures immediately brought to mind the work of Alberto Giacometti, and taken together with their placement on top of this massive pile of broken bricks, tile, and other rubble sadly evoked the news stories and images of the famine and destruction occurring in Gaza of late.
Cannon Fodder
Helena, Montana
2024
A view of some of the old buildings at the Bray. Look closely in the end of the angled pipe and you’ll see another one of the many ceramic tops at the facility.
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Pile of Tile
Helena, Montana
2024
Probably the largest installation piece at the Bray, presumably made from repurposed leftover clay products when the brickworks closed years ago.
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The Tops at the Bray
Helena, Montana
2024
The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts (the Bray) has been around since 1951. It was founded by Archie Bray, an “entrepreneur, brickmaker, and avid arts patron.” it is located on the 26 acre site of the former Western Clay Manufacturing Company and contains 17+ buildings, including all the old brick and claymaking facilities which have not largely been restored or even kept up. Throughout the acreage and scattered seemingly helter-skelter among the old buildings are an amazing number of ceramic pieces created by the students, faculty, and art residency participants over the years.
I’ve known about the Bray pretty much since moving to Montana 40 years ago and finally, after all this time got around to visiting it. It was an amazing experience to wander through the mixture of old buildings and ceramic work. Needless to say I took a lot of photographs. One set of items that kept recurring at random locations throughout the acreage were these small, pleasingly formed tops. It was fun to be wandering around and suddenly come across another one.
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Pillars of Fire
Valley of Fire, Nevada
2024
They’re pillars and they’re in the Valley of Fire, so the name seems like a natural.
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Still Life With Radio Tubes
Bozeman, Montana
2024
I recently had my grandfather’s old radio rebuilt so it would work again. (It sounds great.) I had sent it to a guy in Portland who restores old radios, and when he sent it back to me he included a bag filled with all the old parts, including two tubes, that had been replaced. I thought the old tubes were actually quite attractive in a retro technology sort of way so didn’t want to just throw them away like I did all the uninteresting old wires, condensers, etc. Instead I thought I’d just set them aside and then maybe throw them away sometime later when one of the rare clutter reducing moods I get comes over me. (I can’t seem to stop collecting these sorts of “souvenirs.”) Looking for a safe spot to place these glass gems, I saw this bird nest sitting on the windowsill and thought it looked like a good place for them. That odd paring seemed worthy of a photograph and here it is.
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