The title of this series, Constellation, suggests a grouping or cluster. Jim Melchert executed these clusters by putting dots of glaze along a cracked edge of a shard. As pattern-seeking animals, we are wired to recognize patterns everywhere in the world around us. We gaze into clouds to find recognizable shapes, we construct games and imagine them where they might not exist. It’s a fundamental cognitive skill that underpins much of human thought and behavior. Melchert’s practice occasionally tested this impulse of pattern seeking. His work rarely used intentionally illustrative practices, but occasionally, the results of his system would yield familiar, recognizable patterns. When the shards were assembled together, some evoked a branch of a tree, and others hinted at constellations in the night sky.