As I was thinking about potential titles for this show, my friend Charlie referred me to the phrase “collective motion.” This refers to the spontaneous emergence of ordered movement within a group of many self-propelled agents. Think flock of swallows seeming to move as one or a school of shoaling fish. In each example, individuals move based only on the movement of those nearest to them but together form something beautiful, strong, and complex. 

I relayed this phrase to my dad and in a moment of mishearing he repeated back "collective moment?" 

While I create each of these pots over a long duration of time—carving birds or fish one by one in relation to the one before—what I end up with is a singular moment: a "collective moment." An ephemeral moment made permanent on the pot, a moment enjoying your morning coffee, a pause in your day to replace aging flowers or a memento to the collective moment we have all taken part in this past year. 

I am excited to share my newest work and celebrate the opening of the Moore Family Gallery with you starting Sunday. I hope that, after viewing the show, you can take away the idea that small, seemingly insignificant actions can combine to form something beautiful, strong, and complex.