My creations
To make “infinite” what has been fixed through firing.
In the finished product, one can glimpse and sense the various stages of craftsmanship. Firing is an energetic time of profound transformations that will give rise to surprises: we will see what could have been but transformed by the events that occur during firing. One glaze slips over another, one becomes transparent, an impurity that was once hidden in the clay now appears naked above the glaze. This wonder is also knowledge and it stimulates my creativity.
The kiln is the final “gateway” before reaching the exit of the “maze” of creation. The beginning/origin of the work is far away. The bond established between the artist and the material is too intense to be abandoned at this moment. Only firing can dissolve this bond. But it is not a negative separation; it will give life to something destined to endure over time. The image of that encounter will be forever fixed.
Art critic Bruno Corà describes Franco’s work as “…a search for a valuable manual work in using clay, working with fire, with water, the primary elements, even though they have disappeared in a process of sublimation, alchemical, yet they can still be read, the fire can still be read…”
