Eric Nelsen's sculpture is remarkable on several levels ranging from his technique to his content. Nelsen came to know Isamu Noguchi and actually stayed with him while studying ceramic technique in Japan. Indeed, Nelsen learned the anagama technique from the masters of Bizen, where the anagama-firing of clay was invented.

Nelsen built one of the very first anagama kilns in the United States on Vashon Island, where the artist lives and works. An anagama kiln is build on a slight incline and is several dozen feet long with the chimney end elevated. Firing the kiln takes a week or longer during which many cords of wood are fed into the flame 24 hours a day. The clay pieces are not glazed by anything other than the molten fly ash within the kiln. By the type of wood and placement within the kiln, the artist can control the glazing on the piece. The glaze will range even on a single object from warm reddish browns to thickly textured, lumpy grays.

While Nelsen's firing technique is masterly and ancient, his constructive technique is possibly more stunning and unusual. His pieces are largely figurative and steeped in the scuptural traditions of art history and the history of vessels. Within his works, the viewer can find entire geneologies of Modernist sculpture, or other developed lines of thinking. Nelsen's content is essentially an entire archeology of cultural memory which he joyously juggles with an incomperable finesse of wit and play. But his works are never mere jokes: while they can be playful and funny, Nelsen's respect for (and knowledge of) world art and culture is never anything other than the utmost.

Between his technique, his sculptural form, his ability to compose in three dimensions, and the depth of his encyclopedic content, Nelsen has placed himself as one of the most developed clay sculptors now working in the world.