"Why make pots today?" "And, if I'm going to make pottery, what do pots of a twenty-first century American potter
look like?" "Why can't pots be about something other than style?" "Why not pots about ideas?"
 
These are questions that have long engaged and guided me. I try to work within a tradition of the vessel, while always playing with and pushing the accepted limits, trying to create something of integrity.
 
Above everything else, the one aspect of form that has always intrigued me is the relation ship of the inside of the form
to the out side of the form. This is particularly evident in bowl shapes. For a while now, I've been working on that relationship, by bringing the inside out and the outside in.  By challenging the notion that the lip terminates the form, I've been able to play with that relationship in a way that has opened my eyes to possibilities I hadn't considered previously. It allowed me to achieve profiles and a fluidity that excite me. I think that it also raises the work to another level.  Does it function? Yes.  Does the function define the piece? Not so much.

This particular body of work addresses a couple of ideas. First, as has been the case for the past several years,
my intention is to create work which speaks to process and material, to tradition, to grace, beauty and sensuality,
to energy and movement, and ultimately, to a dimension not traditionally associated with functional pottery... time. 
A successful piece is a snap shot of a moment... the moment of making, frozen in time. To me, the pieces that work best invite careful inspection, but I want the observer to feel that, should they turn their back, the piece may fly off into space or collapse into a heap; that the piece exists for them, for that moment.

Secondly, by pushing the limits of the clay and process a bit more, and allowing myself to accept unexpected and unconventional resolutions, I've been able to achieve forms that, to me, are rather sexy and sensual... two notions that have always appealed to me. The swells, folds and creases can be related to the human form. As I worked in my studio, pursuing these qualities became more important to me than the perceived function of the piece. A bowl, for example, will function as a bowl, but it also becomes a contemplative object, as much sculpture as pottery.

—David Toan  2009