"My current work explores ornamentation and its potential to elicit a range of human emotions. Inspired by fashion, architecture, historical ceramics, and popular culture, I explore ways to manipulate decorative motifs to create objects that have a more intimate connection with the viewer. Employing fragments of aesthetic conventions seen in lawns, topiaries, and curtains, these sculptural vignettes have a malleable association between parts, piecing together a new form that is a hybrid of domestic objects and spontaneous artistic expression.

To create the surface embellishments, I use a combination of hand-forming techniques and molds. Decorative molds allow me to make multiple forms quickly and manipulate and change them easily. I typically use this combination to make many sculptural elements at one time, with only a vague plan of how I will attach them to the surface. I particularly enjoy this process because I see it as being akin to “doodling” with three-dimensional parts. The wall compositions allow for an opportunity to create smaller vignettes that test textures and surfaces that create tension in my sculptural forms. When finishing the surface of the sculptures, vessels, and wall compositions, I use layers of drawing, glaze, texture, and multiple kiln firings to create an expressive surface that feels built up over time." - Kelly King