Mark Yasenchack

Working with terra cotta, Mark hand-builds boxes and wallpieces from slabs that are cut into shapes and then stamped. When the piece is dry it is painted with white underglaze and then washes of colored underglaze are painted on. The piece is then fired. This technique accents the textured surface, and because it is unglazed, suggests a stone-like carved surface, similar to the detail work in Moorish architecture. The grey plasticine clay, which never dries out, is the clay Mark first played with when he was a child. He'd make clay people who'd be eaten by a clay shark, or a clay spaceship with creatures that would crash-land and then be eaten by a clay shark...eventually, he made a human cadaver, complete with all the organs. Almost everything he needed to know he learned then, most importantly: that he loved making things out of clay.

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