Bio
Bradford Davis is an award-winning multimedia artist who uses ceramics as the base matrix to express his feelings, emotions, and responses to his traumas and life experiences. As a retired Army Artillery Officer, he mines his journey of healing to feed his creative research. He mixes fibers, metal, and stained glass with wheel thrown ceramics; to explore the personification of the amphora vessel in its destruction, restoration, and rebirth. Davis received his MFA at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art & Architecture and his BFA from the University of South Carolina, both with a focus in ceramics. He has been an Artist in Residence at Tainan National University of the Arts, Taiwan. His works have been shown internationally and can be found in the collection of the McKissick Museum. Bradford maintains a private studio in Downingtown, PA.
Artist Statement
I am humbled to say that the return to clay has been one of the greatest catalysts in my path of healing. As a veteran contemplating the sum of my life experiences and their weight on my mental health, I have come to co-exist with my traumas and disabilities, journeying through stages of denying, researching, acknowledging, and fighting them, akin to a circle of acceptance.
My artistic practice is fueled by the repetitive deconstruction and reconstruction of the archive of trauma that I have walked with for over a decade. This mirrors aspects of a common therapy practice known as cognitive behavioral therapy, the second go-to treatment plan of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Mental Health Clinics — second only to intense medication regimens. As a patient, I stagnated for over a decade from failed interactions, treatment plans, and a deluge of ever-changing medications and their side effects: years of isolation, fear, instability, insanity, reflection, and breaking bread with demons I never knew existed. During this period, I was incapable of engaging with clay, convinced that I would discover yet another passion I was no longer able to enjoy due to my injuries.
In my practice, I seek clarity, questioning boundaries and sensibilities through the process of engaging clay. Perhaps for many, the malleability of clay leads to a greater awareness of self, a conversation between the material and the maker. The unpredictability of the ceramic process that I explore through stress, fracturing, and deformation strikes a chord in my brain — a vibration of internal calmness providing a brief respite from my mind’s exhaustive mental war games.
In my research, I have come to appreciate a simple historical vessel known as the amphora. Rich in history, this vessel was originally designed as a durable container to ship goods long distances. Within this durability and the personification of the vessel, I find my expressions. Having spent much of my life under the required expectation of being unbreakable, I find a sympathetic thread within these amphorae. Exploring this form in its destruction, deformation, and restoration, I challenge those prior expectations of perfection, and re-contextualize what it means for me to be whole.
This body of work is a collection of responses and a collaboration of clay, my hands, and an ever-spinning Rolodex of traumas and emotional responses. This is a materialization of energetic exchanges and failures made visible, products of a desire to give face to unseen struggles.
