Clay Rat Studio

Dan Dworkin

In my work I strive to elicit a very positive, emotionally-uplifting response. I know I've succeeded when a collector sees my work for the first time and reacts with a big smile. That is why I generally use primary colors in producing bright and bold sculpture. I believe we are the masters of our destiny and while we cannot control all that happens to us, we are responsible for our responses and our attitudes. With a more joyful outlook, life is simply better. Whether making little Woodstocks (the bird, not the place) or tall, beautiful lamps, my goal is to bring a ray of sunshine into people's lives.

My formal training is in engineering. One could say I minored in art with all the time I spent at the art school. As such, it's natural that one of my inspirations is M.C. Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972). His work, perhaps more than any artist living or dead, blends architecture and art in amazing, often twisted, ways. My work is what Escher might have done had he had polymer clay in his lifetime and an interest in Venetian millefiori technique. I'd like to believe that Escher would have been pleased with my flowers within flowers within flowers shrinking to magnifying-glass tininess. I know it pleases my collectors.