This piece is called Curtains of Confusion. It's made from clay formed with mainly the slab building technique. I chose the name because when looking at the piece, most people are unable to identify anything. A common reaction to looking at the tile was confusion, hence the name. I used a lot of different textures to add detail to the piece as well as to draw the observer's attention to specific places on the work. I also used space to keep the different pieces of the work separate from each other instead of trying to mesh them all together. By using these two elements, I feel I've given the work a much deeper meaning, even though there are no real recognizable features. I started by rolling out a thinner slab (a little over 1/4") as the base for the tile. I started brainstorming things that I could add to the tile that had no recognizable shapes or forms, but still held meaning to me. There is a sphere in the middle for each year in my early childhood (I could only fit 8) and each other element touching the spheres represents a major life event. The stack of stars represents a major life event for someone else who was a part of my life at the time. Although it has no real purpose other than decoration, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. If I had more time I probably would've just added more detail to all of the features and spent a little more time smoothing and polishing everything up.