My work is influenced from my life experiences, and from shapes, forms, textures and colors I find in nature, architecture, maritime tools and equipment. This could be something very subtle as the color of spring grass or very dramatic as a vine twisting tightly around a tree. Or it could be a crab trap washed up in the marsh. I try to take a walk in the woods, cypress swamps or to the river everyday for this inspiration. This helps keep me grounded and in rhythm with nature and it’s currents and cycles. As a studio potter making a great number of pots, it’s much the same rhythm and cycle one will find in nature. I also keep in mind the long ceramic history, and maritime history on the Mississippi Gulf Coast going back to the local clays and marks the Native Indians made on their pottery, to George Ohr, Joseph Myers, and Shearwater, as well as old Japanese folk pottery. I continue to experiment with forms and colors that keeps my interest high in the studio. I simply love to make pots, because I love clay and fire.
Brian Nettles