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Throughout his career, Spinski experimented with many different materials, forms and techniques, becoming most well-known for his trompe l’oeil clay sculptures, which often incorporated humor. Along with other ceramicists, Spinski helped shape the trompe l’oeil movement in ceramics. He chose to depict objects that reflected his blue collar upbringing, “industrial society’s utilitarian materials.”
Spinski drew inspiration from the work of the Chinese Yixing artists who created ceramic teapots to look like they were made from any material other than clay - tree trunks, rocks, branches.
Spinski enjoyed the meticulousness of his trompe l’oeil sculptures and would spend hundreds of hours on one piece. He was also a great prankster, one time leaving a ceramic garbage pail out for the sanitation worker who smashed it on his garbage truck in an attempt to get the lid off, immediately
sobering him from a hangover.
