Chris Paulsen creates a variety of wall-mounted heads depicting Day of the Dead dogs, Japanese Onis, Darko rabbits and many other unusual faces. Using a custom glazing process, his clay creatures delight, and disturb.

About the Artist

Chris Paulsen is a Portland sculptor who discovered ceramics while attending the University of Arizona. In 1991, he made his first piece. It began as a full-size Fred Flintstone head but became a mountain range with railroad tracks going through a tunnel when it wasn’t coming out right. This provided his first ceramics lesson: Don’t get too caught up in expectations. Just let it happen.

After college, Chris moved to Oregon, where worked with ceramicists and other artists who introduced him to the intricacies of glazes and to new techniques such as the use of colored slips and sgraffito. Today, he handcrafts his strange and surprising clay heads from a custom process he has developed over the years.