While traveling through Europe as a symposium artist in the early 2000s, Brad Schwieger was deeply impressed by the eclectic architectural styles he encountered — from medieval to Art Nouveau and Neo-classicism. He said, "I find an interesting parallel between architecture and pottery. Like architecture, pottery deals with elements of form and structure, the interior and exterior, utility and containment, surface detail and adornment. I have attempted to synthesize these interests and produce work that shares the minimal and complex, the miniature and monumental, the formal elements of design, the implied and the possibility of actual function."