Seattle Times
1978
Deloris Tarzan

(Edited Transcript)

Sams’ ceramics spectacular at Gail Chase Gallery

Anyone who travels to Bellevue for the joy of fine crafts would be cheating himself or herself not to make a stop at the Gail Chase Gallery . . . where Ben Sams' outrageous sculptures are featured in a solo show.

To call the work of nearly any other sculpture "outrageous'' would be either slang or hyperbole.  Applied to Sams' pieces, its accurate description.  He stretches the use of clay beyond its usual limits to build figures and faces in sizes and combinations which defy reasonable expectations. . . .

"Texas Ranger," a life size cowboy Sams spent a year cresting, is androgymous and, like other Sams' pieces, is remarkable for its
detailing, down to individual teeth.

A mug by any other ceramicist is likely to be a simple cylinder with a handle. But "simple" is not in Sam's vocabulary.  His mugs are arcane arrangements of faces, fingers, and disassembled set of eyes brightly glazed, peering from unlikely angles.

It is one of the wonders of Sams technique that any given piece may bear as many as a dozen glazes, each of which must have different requirements and be expected to behave differently in the kiln--and somehow all emerge precisely as wished.