August 2018: Dennis Meiners

Dennis Meiners uses an ancient technique called Mishima to apply imagery to ceramic surfaces that, in his case, involves incising lines into still-wet clay, laying a slip into the lines that contrasts in color to the clay, then cleaning off the excess to reveal the line; much like etchers do in their printing process. This makes it possible to make a very crisp line. “My variation on Mishima involves coming back into the outlines with thin washes of the same slip to create texture such as fur or feathers, and I use all this to make drawings that I hope show my outlook on our present time. I use a lot of animal imagery that I juxtapose with industrial imagery. While each image very much stands for itself, each is a metaphor that stands for whatever the viewer sees, and I hope gives the viewer an opening to a new story, one that may have not been evident without encountering the piece or pieces I put out into the world.”