Presentation never reveals everything. Something is always hidden behind the scenes—the outfit you clothe yourself in, the ‘best’ side of a round pot you photograph, the hidden part of the car they don't pimp on Pimp My Ride. 

Though it may mimic our world, the trickery of photography intrigues me. 

Skateboarding was my first artform. Alone and meditatively focused, I could escape the chaos of home. 

Skate mentality resurfaces as I photograph—always searching for spots to tell stories. In skateboarding, ‘spots’ become linked to people and their feats. Whomever comes next adds to the story of that place, and to the larger story of skateboarding. Alfred is a ceramic-world spot.

In my photographs, I connect my own history to the larger story of ceramics, building upon what’s been done. Tyshawn Jones, two-time Thrasher Skater of the Year, once said: “When you can touch the spots people remember, one trick can equal 20.” Referential context multiplies the impact of content, whether it’s the duplicated stripes of Greg Noll’s surf shorts, or a pot’s George Ohr-inspired twists. 

I draw on a small slice of history, ceramic and otherwise. From a collaborative Picasso Vase reproduction project, to my version of Picasso’s quick vase-turned-duck-sculptures (featured in my photographs as ‘clay pigeons,’ and later, as a piñata), referents become characters, recurring in my work in various forms. Context multiplies content—I build already-meaningful objects into narratives of my own.

There is a pair of water towers I used to pass driving to school. I later came across a video of Jeremy Wray clearing the sixteen foot gap between those same towers on a skateboard. Shot from the vantage point you must climb to, this reframed a place I knew but never paid much attention to. I am always looking for the thing I’ve driven by everyday but didn’t know how special it was—the new angle on the same old thing, the story that reveals its significance.