Miles Piontek's Artist Statement

I focus on the act of creating movement in various mediums and methods, all of which feel equally important to my experience as an artist. I am informed by a background in two-dimensional art which made me critically engaged with the ebbs and flows of image composition. I have taken elements from what I value in two-dimensional mediums and translated them to my three-dimensional works in ceramics and oil clay, searching for strong silhouettes, intriguing negative spaces, and dynamic gestural lines throughout my works. This exploration is often prioritized over following my reference solely observationally. I aim for my work to feel hyper-specific in the pockets of nuance I discover throughout the making process. Small exciting moments of organic variation are a point I love to highlight, whether that is representational or abstractly referential. 

Recently, I have been captivated by the dialogue between the artistic medium and the hand. In my ceramic work, I create circumstances which emphasize the clay’s natural response to various types of stressors and tools. Depending on the stage of dryness, the speed at which I work, surface treatment, and how a piece is fired in a kiln, different aspects of a piece will emerge as a focal point. In printmaking, I use drastic value systems to make space an active participant in the conversation of every piece. I challenge myself to see each shape I draw as a brand new one, leading to final images which become more clear through active engagement from the viewer.