"My drive is the creation of the work, the new and undiscovered ideas." Larry Halvorsen works with stoneware clay, constructing his pieces through a combination of hand-building techniques, including coiling, press-and-slump molding, and slab building. The pieces are coated with black slip, and then, using the ancient technique of sgraffito, he carves through the slip, revealing the natural clay beneath. His pieces are fired once to cone 10 (2,300 degrees) in a natural gas kiln. Halvorsen's influences range from ancient stone tools, ritual objects, and Celtic monoliths to the wondrous variety of form and pattern in nature, and seeing Pre-Columbian pottery, the Mayan sites of Tikal and Copan, and the highlands of Guatemala during the two years he spent in the Peace Corp in Central America