Incan Helmet Head, Green Devil #2, White Gorilla

Mind Flayers and Mushmouth from Fat Albert.

Dan says:

The mushrooms look kinda like a combination between Mind Flayers and Mushmouth from Fat Albert.

I'm flattered to have created anything that could conceivably reminded anyone of mind flayers. I found the cast of Fat Albert much creepier than Illythids.

The Charles Crumb Twisted Cowboy Face

This cowboy face is based on a drawing by Charles Crumb, brother of cuddly-vicious cartoon artist R. Crumb. After seeing Terry Zwigoff's documentary about R. and his brothers, I had a brief frightening vision of myself living with my mother in my 40s, surrounded by sci-fi paperbacks in a cramped bedroom, having random arguments about whose turn it was to use the inflatable bath pillow. Thank Cthulhu that it didn't go down that way.

Charles Crumb's cowboy from an art aptitude test for a correspondence art school.

Corazón de hormigas

Hay insectos chiquitos arrastrándose sobre y a través de mi corazón.
Me pican a mí. Te pican a ti.

Older Shrooms

Skull Shroom

The Angry Mopheads

I wanted to write a children's book and illustrate it all with clay objects, digitally altered whenever necessary. It was about a kid named Jesús (Spanish hay-soos, not English jee-zuss) who has nightmares about an angry mop in his closet. The nightmares involve the furious mop chasing him down slippery corridors until he falls flat on his back, with the mop coming closer and closer to his upturned face. The last few pages would be without words, but would show Jesús waking up with the mop on his face, getting married with the mop on his face, having children with the mop on his face (and also on the faces of the children), and finally lying in a coffin, still with a mop on his face. I made the model of Jesús looking scared in bed, but I don't have a picture and it's not finished anyway. I made four models of the mopheads; my favorite is the one on the bottom right, even if it looks a little like one of those shaggy McDonalds mythos creatures from the 70s.

The Illuminati

The Rolling Stones Tongue and Lips Top Hat and Stash Box

During a studio event showing student and member work, a neighborhood man approached me to talk about the clay objects I had on display. These particular clay objects had some clay pipes among them and the man became very excited. He told me about a hat that his wife had made with the Rolling Stones lips and tongue logo emblazoned on it with red sequins. He wanted to commission me to make a clay version of it to serve as a stash box. He later brought his sister back with him to show her my pipes and other clay atrocities. She took me aside and apologized for her brother and thanked me for indulging him as he walked around the neighborhood drunk. I got as far as making a small clay version of the hat, but it was obvious that he wasn't coming back after a year or so and I was bored of the project by that time anyway.

Here is the original hat.

Here I am wearing the hat. I look so happy because I'm going to throw it out soon.

Eye of Fear and Flame

Beholders are aberrant D&D monsters consisting of a spherical body, various eye stalks, a glaring central eye, sharp teeth, and a lust for chaos. Eye of Flame and Eye Tyrant are subspecies of beholders. Eye of Fear and Flame was a fairly generic undead creature, but I think the name should have been assigned to another beholder subspecies.

These Weird Clay Objects don't look much like beholders, but they justify me writing about Dungeons & Dragons aberrations, which makes me feel like life is worth living.

Tall Random and Non-Random Atavism Columns

Stacked Hexagram Atavism

Atavism made of stacked hexagrams (in the sense of six-pointed stars, not I Ching symbols) with vaguely Muppet-like eyes.

Unhappy Penis Column

I've been saving this strange and embarrassing clay object for a special day and today is that day. I would like to make it clear that I didn't sit down at the pottery studio one day in 2009 and say, "I'm going to make an unhappy penis column." It just happened.

Now, let us never speak of this again.

Cthulhu Column and Cthulhu Atavism

Lovecraft was not a religious man, but he knew how to create a god who was really worth fearing. Not a Middle Eastern volcano god whose ego burned away the rest of his pantheon. Not a doomed hippie preaching to his chosen ethnic group. Cthulhu is a divine glorification of every fearsome unknown entity that may or may not be lurking in obscure corners of our planet or our universe.

Perry

I like these small sculptures because they're fast and easy and unlikely to be damaged. I call them atavisms. This atavism is named Perry after the Butthole Surfers song, and also possibly the character from Home Movies. It also reminds me of the cover to Crass' Penis Envy album.

It's about loving yourself. It's about loving your mum. It's about loving your dad. It's about doing the things. It's about going to the go-kart track. It's about loving everything - your pup, your kitty, all the things, the cat food, the little bits of crayons, the melted pieces, the loving friends, all the things you wish you had.

Twisted Columns

These are small twisted columns with grotesque faces and spiral hats. There is also the bowl end of a pipe that broke which stayed on my shelf for about a year before I decided to glaze it and hopefully abandon it somewhere interesting.

Spider Column

It doesn't look much like a spider, but it has a spider's countenance, or at least I think so. I like this sculpture because the "horns" are small coils of clay pushed through holes in the top part of the head and curved upward while the clay was still soft.

Vision Quest

Today I went on a vision quest in Saguaro National Park. I entered an altered state of consciousness and left two clay objects behind as offerings to the spirits of the desert plant life in exchange for their advice on various matters of great importance in my life.

I parked at the Valley View trail off of Hohokam Road, and walked along the road almost to where it reaches a dead end at Golden Gate Road. There, I crossed the boundary into the maze of arroyos and left the smaller clay object at the base of a towering saguaro.

I continued along the wash, eventually finding a certain monolithic stone outcropping. I left a second offering, my second attempt at a Cthulhu Madonna. I attempted to recreate the piece because one mouth tentacle broke off the original. The second one lacked the beatific expression of the original; furthermore, the headpiece became detached from the head and was incorrectly placed by whomever loaded the kiln.

Angry Nun in the Middle

Here is the perfect clay object to buy for someone who is tired of neckties, photo frames, and dildos as birthday gifts (and who among us isn't): a vaguely cthuloid shape with an angry nun in the middle, surrounded by a rogue's gallery of frogs and skulls.

Happy May Day. Workers of the world, untie!