Dreamscapes marks Persons’ return to ceramics after nearly three decades away from the medium, renewing a fascination and dialogue with clay that began in Southern California in the mid-1970s. In this new body of work, altered vessel forms evolve into poetic landscapes of memory and dreams. Characterized by a highly painterly approach, the works feature soft, layered fields of pastel color in dusty ochres, muted pinks, faded blues, and gentle greens, combined with expressive marks, translucent washes, and handwritten poems.
These non-functional vessels, both thrown and hand-built, become visceral objects for gathering and storing his nocturnal dreams. The handwritten texts are drawn from a personal archive of writings accumulated over the past four decades and woven into the ceramic surfaces, blending words, color, and gesture into intimate visual narratives.
Derived from his personal archive, these writings form an emotional map that guides his spontaneity through his remembrances of their flavors, hues, and dreamlike playfulness. By closing one’s eyes, the dream becomes a passage into a future where the past re-emerges in the present. Each vessel becomes a poetic landscape in which memory, imagination, and the subconscious converge.