Ghost Cloud Sequence encapsulates the profound link between climate change and human experience against the backdrop of California's annual destructive winter rains and wildfires. The artist collaborates with nature, exposing ceramics to torrential rains, evoking a nuanced surface. A black and white palette underlines rain's dual nature: obstructive yet vital for growth. Celebrating winter rains, the piece laments their absence in summer. By leveraging the inherent longevity and fragility of ceramics, a theme emerges that contemplates the sublime within the context of climate change.

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Ghost Cloud is a collaboration with the rainy season, shaped by water collected from the runoff of my kiln room roof. I coat ceramic tiles with layers of pigment and expose them outdoors during winter storms, allowing rainwater to erode and carry away the surface in unpredictable ways. Similar to wet plate photography, this process captures a direct imprint of atmospheric conditions—each tile becoming a record of time, weather, and chance.

As the pigments dissolve and shift, they form soft gradients and vignette edges, evoking cloud formations or drifting smoke, reminiscent of atmospheric kiln effects without the flame. The rain becomes an active collaborator, authoring marks I cannot fully control.

The resulting runoff of the ceramic pigments are saved and incorporated into recycled glaze batches for a sustainable and limited edition glaze to use in subsequent work. Nothing is lost and piped water is conserved.

114” x 47” x 4” (294.6 cm x 116.8cm x 10cm)

Hand-formed stoneware panels, underglaze, rainwater runoff from a rainstorm on November 21, 2024. 

38.29197458264549, -122.45575452935402

2025