Henry Tanaka

Artist's Statement

     My parents and grandparents handed down to me the respect and love of handcrafted utilitarian objects in an effort to preserve and nurture pride in my heritage. I wish to celebrate my Japanese ancestry by bringing an appreciation of my family's culture into my work. I also want to reflect my continual journey of finding myself.

     I use the elements of form, color, texture, size and weight to create a statement about utility and the setting in which my pieces are used. My work's ability to offer food in concert with a vessel that is rich in generosity, both visually and tactually, is my objective. Making an object that has the power to create a certain atmosphere surrounding the daily ritual of eating is paramount. I love when my work becomes a tool for the social act of eating. I hope that my work can add ambience where people are sharing food and thought - some of the most important moments of our life.

     A sense of warmth and an invitation to touch are qualities that I appreciate in my work. I try to achieve this by striving for a strong sense of material and process in creating my pieces. Atmospheric firings bring a serendipitous quality that seems to mirror life. In my decoration I love to see a contrast of fluidity and hard lines whether it is by the nature of the process or material. I use images derived from nature and symbols from Japanese textiles and layer upon them my own individual thoughts.