Roger Herman believes he has maintained a beginner’s freedom since his transition to working with ceramics. He operates with a controlled naivety, relying more on intuition than discipline. The skull is a regularly repeated motif in Herman’s work, as seen on this plate. Repetition has often helped the artist explore the nuance of a subject, and the skull’s message of transience, a modern day momento mori, is fitting to return to time and time again.