Danny Young, the face behind Bent Oaks Pottery, is a ceramics artist from Texas. His work shows an obvious celebration of nature, and an appreciation for traditional ceramic techniques.

Danny’s work walks the line between art and craft, often falling into both worlds at once.

His more conventional pottery is burnished and smoke-fired to create a surface clouded with rich earth tones. Many of these pots and vases also have abstract images on their surfaces, reminiscent of tall grass or tree branches.

I find Danny’s sculptural works most compelling. He has created a series of smooth, fantastical ceramic forms, each one simultaneously alien and familiar, and marbled on the surface with the same earthy pigment Danny uses in his pottery. Collectively titled Lips, these sculptures are satisfying and intriguing as a series, or individually.