Christy Keeney uses a raku-crank body which is coated with a white earthenware slip. Coloured stains are then painted freely onto the dry clay. After the biscuit firing, oxides are rubbed into the piece and washed off to reveal the drawing marks on the surface the drawing marks and stains etc are finally fixed at a firing temperature of 1120'C.
Keeney writes that his work is an investigation of the human figure. Form is stretched to the point where sculpture and drawing overlap. Both minimal and direct, the surface moves through a palette of soft washes that lifts the narrative and expresses not only the nature of the image but also the expressive quality of the materials.
These flat heads are representations of everyday people of no fixed abode. The figures usually make an attempt to express human spirit in all its many forms. Keeney say's that he likes to work with the clay blindly letting the moment dictate his progress. When the form develops to some conclusion, he then add the features.