A series of ceramic vessels cast using wild clays harvested from soils around Pittsburgh. Each clay harvested contains its own unique "recipe" of trace metals introduced by human activity: zinc, from the fly ash of the coal combustion process; lead, from gasolines & lead smelting in the area; manganese, from soil leaching within slag dumps. Once pit fired, these non-indigenous elements within the clay bodies chemically react to introduce beautiful colors and textures.

Like points on a map, this collection of vessels can be used to explore trends of anthropogenic material distribution. From a combination of landscape form, climatic patterns, and the spatial distribution of human activity, the concentrations of these different materials vary at a highly regional scale. These vessels not only represent a place and its environmental legacy, but they literally are a place--taken directly from the ground as soil, processed into clay, and cast into objects.