Frog-Headed & Beaked: Companions in Clay

The Frog-Headed Character is modeled on Prince, a Michigan frog who sat on my driveway shortly after we built our house near the Sleeping Bear Dunes, MI. I was trying to drive down the driveway, but he refused to move — just sat there, calmly staring at me. Curious about what he was up to, I got out of the car and began snapping photos of him, edging closer and closer. He just sat there, looking right back at me, until he finally consented to hop away.

Prince’s red eyes are borrowed from a tropical frog — a small detail that matches the red beak of his companion.

I called him Prince, remembering the fairy tale — with its different German and American versions. In the German story, the princess, disgusted, throws the frog against the wall, and only then does the prince appear. In the American version, she kisses him instead.

Why do both of these sculptures have human-like shoulders and animal heads? As a novice in ceramics, I had first tried to copy a contemporary sculpture. After Steve Kline, my kind mentor, had modeled the shoulders of what is now the beaked lady, I grew frustrated trying to replicate the whimsical human head of that piece and gave up.

Instead of forcing a human head, a bird head came to mind — I had been feeding crows and many other birds during the snowy Michigan winter. The bright red beak, however, was inspired by a tropical toucan. The polka dots on the human-like shoulders of both new critters were Steve’s idea, as were the feathers on the back of her head — these details reflect our collaboration.

Since the bird lady had Steve’s sculpted shoulders, I decided to make wider, more male-like human shoulders for the frog-headed sculpture, giving him a distinct presence of his own.

Looking back, I realize these human shoulders and animal heads capture what I was feeling at the time — a mix of my own curiosity and playfulness, my daily encounters with nature, and the freedom to invent something that didn’t have to be exact or realistic. They remind me that good things can grow out of letting go of what doesn’t feel right and following what wants to emerge instead.

.  Both characters have become fond little companions in my house — the laid-back frog and the quietly watchful beaked companion, who keeps things in line.

My first ceramics were shown before

Amaco Celadon Glazes (before firing, a glaze may have a totally different color, making keeping notes imperative):

Pear, Wasabi, Obsidian, snapdragon