The first of many, and cleaning time.

Hey there fellow pottery enthusiasts! This week we'll start a new tradition. Every Thursday I'll try to mention two potters whose work is inspiring me. The number of incredible contemporary potters is truly a vast and deep well filled with awesome pots! So let's jump in with this weeks artists. 

“If I don’t love and encourage a piece of clay, if I don’t help it inch its way along to become the most beautiful thing I want it to become, it’s sort of a futile process to me. The need to feel all of this as humans [support and encouragement] is synonymous to making a pot because it’s intimate in the same sort of way.”  - Matthew McGovern  

Matthew McGovern is one of the potters I've been paying particular attention to this week. The images of his pots have a peaceful quietness to them that is outstanding. He manipulates slip on the outside of his forms with outstanding results. I rarely attempt this for of decoration but whenever I see results like this I can't help but long to try my hand at it. Along with Matthew I've been looking at the wood fired work of Kurt Teeter. Teeter studied in MFA program in at West Virginia University. I heard about Teeter from my mother, and after first opening his web page I've had the colors of his pots in my mind. Especially the earthy deep blues of the pot pictured below. 

 
They are just the best kind soft. To my eyes the interplay of line between the uneven edge of the pot and the blocking of color and lined texture above it. Just visually wonderful and stimulating to me.

It's been a strange week in the studio. It is test week which means there is only about a 50 % chance that I'll make it into the studio. Unfortunately, at least two days this week have had me banished via locked doors and missing keys (you wouldn't think that could be a problem) to the silence of an empty staff room and the endless digital wastes of the internet. This time was immediately put to finding new potters and pottery articles to read up on. On Monday I cleaned EVERYTHING. The ever growing mound of cast off trimmings was beginning to take on a life of its own, so it was time for a fresh start.

 I did manage to glaze pots and load the kiln for a small glaze firing that will be on track to open on Monday.


In a somewhat out of character move there ended up being a lot of blues and greens in this batch of firing. Something in the pots made me want to play with color in a more experimental way than I typically do. I think that I am naturally drawn to earthen tones, and natural glazes. Glossy colored glazes typically turn my eye (just not my style), but I also think there is room for a new level of layering that I have trouble achieving with my matted glazes. I'm hoping that the under-glazes and brushwork I attempted to practice will shine through the semi transparent blues and greens I glazed with this time. That's right brush work and glossy! . . . Where did Andrew go?. . . I know right.

Hey, growth requires experimentation.

The last push of creation and experimentation this week was another attempt at dialing in what an A. Sartorius Ceramics tea pot will look like. Right now this is what is coming off the wheel. For me, it's not there. In rare form I like the handle and the curve of the body, but the lid and the spout need more work. None the less, progress!



To wrap up this week's post. Go experiment. Try something new. Stretch your comfort zones and create something new. It's the only real way to grow, and I am certainly am seeking growth more than anything else.

Photo Journal: The Dragon

Pots out back of Thow Kwang Pottery Center

The baby dragon. 

One of Singapore's last 2 dragon kilns. This thing was massive! 

Inside the dragon. 

So back in the holiday season Stephanie and I went to Singapore, and I may have mentioned that we adventured our way to one of Singapore's last giant climbing dragon kilns. When we got to the slightly out of the way location it was starting to rain, we were being devoured by mosquitoes, and it turned out that there were no classes being offered that day. So. . . resigned to only getting to look at a kiln without really getting a chance to learn much about it we explored the large open air studio. A whole lot of the work sold at this pottery center isn't had made in Singapore, but we managed to find one of the artists in residency at Thow Kwang Pottery, Steven Low. And he saved our day of pottery center exploration. Steven talked to us about the ceramics community that had grown around these dragon kilns, and about his time as care taker for the kiln. He also talked with us a little about his new lines of work. His kindness and personal attention to two wayward travelers interested in a bit of pottery was incredibly generous. Thank you Steven! If you are ever in Singapore and want to have a guaranteed great time GO VISIT STEVEN! The dragon kiln is a stunning sight, and the work that comes out of it is equally stunning.

Steven with some of his work in progress. 

I love his tea bowls. 

Steven loves making tea bowls, and has a huge collection of beautiful creations at the pottery center. This little beauty was irresistible, and is now happily siting in my apartment.  

Steven's studio. 

Updates and Spates

Every monthish, maybe month and a half, I am fortunate enough to get a package containing one or two new Ceramics Monthly. I could write about how charged up they get me to learn more and try new things in the studio, but I wanted to share a very well stated description of an artist named David Hicks. The reason I'd like to highlight him is for his description of his creation process.

"I tend to work in short encounters with my wall compositions. These encounters are broken up into multiple focuses. For example I initially begin by producing five or so objects that will set the tone for a piece. Once that has been established, I work to make pieces that relate to or respond to those initial model objects. This process is usually a fast-paced process that is heavy handed and quick so I can keep my direction. I have a tendency to drift with objects in an evolutionary way. Works keep evolving and changing, and I keep it quick so I don't stray too far. Honestly this pace also keeps my interest fresh and focused." 

Hicks continues on, describing how he chooses objects and hanging methods for his seedpod inspired wall clusters which have such a fluidity and organic sense I can hardly stand it. The repetition of form, but not exact form or glaze pulls my eye in in a way that many other works of similar theory (collections of many smaller ceramic pieces grouped together) tend to loose my interest. 

If you're in need of some beautiful sculptures to look at or perhaps a great short article (this isn't the one from the Ceramics Monthly but it'll give you a little more of an idea) Check it out! It's what's inspiring me this week. 

I'm trying to really crank out work for a bisque fire this Thursday. I have been working on a few larger forms, and am still cranking on the slab plates. Any way! If you're a reader tell me about your creative process. I think the biggest reason David Hick's work  speak to me is because of the episodic quality to the collection of work featured. They have a real sense of exploration within a given time to me. I've worked for three (going on four) years in a borrowed studio space here at Susaki high school, and I think I may have to use his words to express how my creative process has worked here. Each day, perhaps week at best, is an episode of my imagination. I can rarely build up any type of concrete process or method, so my work comes in spates. My goal for this most recent outcropping was to create forms in sets. except for this beauty below. 

 

Until next time. Go create something! 

Follow Up

The school is like a came. The halls are dark, and the thick cement walls hold the night's cold far longer than one would think. Fall's colors are all scattered across the hills and it's dark by 5:30 if your lucky now. It seems like winter came almost without any sense of Fall at all. Perhaps two weeks at best, but that's ok by me. Winter here is quite mild, and though the homes are not so well heated or insulated it means more hot beverages and soups. I'd take being cold over being hot any day.

I wanted to follow up on my post about the young potters I saw in Tobe with a few pictures of the more traditional Tobe Yaki look.

There is a lovely little hand made gallery just down the street from my apartment where I try to stop in once every month or so just to check what pottery and laquer ware turns up, and this month they had a real surplus of new potters. The two folks from tobe above, and a new Kochi potter. All I was able to understand from the store owner's description is that the potter was a woman who lived about 20 minutes away in Tosa and that she built everything by hand without the use of a wheel. I really love the glaze on the first tea bowl pictured.

Hoping to return to posting every Monday and Thursday now that the kiln in back on line. We'll see you soon everyone. Go CREATE!

Dream Walks and Fixed Kilns

Step by step in the quiet rain I head for temples hidden amoungst the hustle of one of Shikoku's biggest cities. Two weeks ago Steph and I checked off Matsuyama from our 88 temple trek. Along the way we stayed at the always fantastic Sen Guesthouse (seriously if you travel through Matsuyama do yourself a favor and stay there!). While there, I got to conversing with the owner about local potters. Matsuyama is home to Tobe Yaki, a place which I am sadly very under educated at the moment. The work that I associate with Tobe Yaki (as I knew it) is traditionaly a white clay body with blue designs painted under a clear glossy glaze. The owners at the Sen guest house assured me that that may be the traditional imagery, but that there is some really creative and absolutely fantastic contemporary ceramics comming out of Tobe.  

 This is a pot from Asato Ikeda, and I am absolutely in love with his forms. They're loaded with motion and energy. Appearantly the folks and Sen Guesthouse are friends of his and work to help him publisize his ceramics from time to time. I'd love to pic this guys brain, and watch his process for creating such movement within the clay. 

As some of you may know my other obsession in life is tiny houses, and I saw this little beauty cruzing down the road on the way to the Kochi Air Port for a business trip to Tokyo. Similarly to my desire to pic the brains of Tobe's youthful potters I would LOVE to spend an afternoon exploring the construction of this little movable cabin. I doubt it is used for camping or dwelling. It is owned by a bakery, but I am willing to bet it could be repurposed to be dweld within. If you asked me why I love tiny houses I don't think I could adiquately articulate my feelings in a clear enough mannor. The biggest appeal of them is that they seem doable! I have always wanted to build my own home, but have absolutely no knowledge of carpentry, construction, and only the very basest of handymanery. Constructing something tiny is a way to get around the daunting challenge of learning all of that full scale. They are also significantly easier to heat, own, make energy efficient, and leave less of an imprint on the world that surrounds us. I could go on for days about hwo freak'n cool tiny structers are and how much I want to make pottery in one, but I won't . . . because that isn't what you're here for.

You're here because you're my friend, and you are curious about my ceramics and life. Now we come to the news that you and I have been waiting for, for weeks and weeks. The kiln repair is complete! There is a bisque firing happening as we speak and Yamatogi Sensei assures me that I can do a glaze firing this weekend if all goes well. Extatic does not do my feelings justice. I have a load of my own work (mostly ochoko and a few tea bowls) to fire, and probably at least a load of tiles from the workshop I did last month during my exhibition.

Thanks for reading! If you get a chance go check out Asato's work. Keep creating.

Drive and publicity!

Working towards goals is one of the most self empowering things you can do in your day to day life. Be they goals in fitness, education, ceramics, painting, music or competative TV staring (well maybe not so much the later) striving to better yourself is a HUGE opportinity for generating happiness. 

For my first year and a half here my work was almost 90% spontanious. I might sit down to the wheel and say, "I'm going to make a bowl", and sure enough a bowl of some type would be the result. I don't see any problem with this, however recently I have been focusing much more on creating with a designed purpose. Sketching out pots, looking through Ceramics Monthly for inspirational forms constantly, and in general being more demanding of my own creative process. The result of this is an ever growing collection of work ready to be bisqued, and the need to set goals.



Greenware ready and waiting for the bisque.



Living here in Japan I feel fairly disconnected from the pottery communities I spend most of my days reading about, and the language barrier between Japan's pottery community and myself is quite large (this is mostly my own fault for choosing gardening and pottery over studying all the time). That all being said, I've recently really been focused on finding international art competitions and calls for entry to work towards. I like having a challenge or a goal to push for, and the addition of a deadline really helps to accelerate my drive sense of purpose while in the studio. The show I'm currently working at applications for is a call for demitasse and saucer designs. So I'm expiramenting.



If you like art of all sorts, and would like to see a fantastic digital collection of up and comming artists check out artascent.com. Art Ascent is a great sight. Their goal is to create themed competitions for international artists to have a chance to share their work with a wider community. If you are an up and comming artist I can't recommend them enough. They put out a lot of different calls for work and their themes are ussually really interesting. My work is up on their web site, and later I will be featured in a paper publication as well. Can't wait to see a hard copy of that. The other featured artists are really great and totally worth checking out as well.

I think that's about all the news from the studio this week. Be on the lookout in the near future for more news, and hopefully a firing soon!

Go create something! Stop thinking about it and do it!

Bad News Break Down

    As an English teacher in Japan's public school system you know you come the end of March with the opening of cherry blossoms also comes the potential for your work world to dramatically change. Voices from mysterious Prefectural offices send out names on charts that, seemingly, uncaringly uproot teachers from their current schools and forcibly scatter them to all the far flung corners of the prefecture. For my past two years the teacher change has left my school largely unaffected.

    I entered to pottery studio last Thursday to desks covered in cardboard boxes and a very overwhelmed best friend. Tabe Sensei (my school's incredible craft teacher, and the reason I am able to use the pottery studio at my school, and most importantly my best friend at work) has been summoned away by the voices on high. She has 3 days to completely clean the studio and all of its Tabe art, decorations, and teaching aids. It's a daunting task. Over her years here many students have gifted her their art projects. These gifts adorn every inch of the studio. In slight shock at the news that Thursday and Friday will be my last days of seeing her, and my studio (at least as I have known it), all I can muster is, "I'll help?"
    In relative silence we collect the relics of her years teaching here. She chooses a few that mean the most to her (they'll follow her to her next school), but there are far more than could ever make the trip to her currently unknown next school. So, with pliers, hammers, and other instruments of disaster we deconstruct her collection of art in to suitably sorted piles of recyclabe parts. We save the pottery room for last. There we gather all our students work that is left over. . .

take it out behind the kiln shed,

Tabe the destroyer!

This is only a third of the student's work we smashed.

the aftermath

     and take out our frustration in a duel hammer weilding frenzy. After the dust settles and we've spread the shattered bits evenly about laughter takes us. Inside I'm still smashing things with hammers. We go back and talk about our years together with kids and in the studio. We cram all our work into the electric kiln for one last group bisque fire, and watch as a construction crew crain lifts the old broken down gas kiln away into nothingness (now even the kiln room feels empty). She says she'll come to school and visit me when she can, and reminds me that we live in the same town. I assure her that I'll take her up on her invitation of comming to her house any time to say hello.

     All in all, last weeks ceramics news was somewhat crippling. It is a total system reset. It means getting to know a new craft teacher, probably not teaching any ceramics courses this year, and at least for the moment a severly less agressive studio presence. Tabe sensei apearantly went to university with the genltman who will be taking her spot at school. She says he's brilliant, and claims that she has explained to him that I use the studio and can help the students as well. These are all promissing details, but none the less change (big or small) is difficult, and my school in total lost about 13 incredible teachers. Two of those 13 are English teachers I love working with, and one is my best Japanese friend.
    For now, I have to go and continue to help clean the studio, and say farewells. More will come as I know what the ceramics situation looks like from here. I'll post when I can with updates.
Everything changes, the important thing is how you handle that change. Tabe sensei and I will see eachother again, and even if I am only granted once a week after school studio time it will still be sticking my hands in mud. . . . gratitude for my two plus years of working with her and thoughts of how much she ( and the time she allowed me to have in the studio) helped me to find my love of ceramics throughout my years here are the thoughts I'm trying really hard to focus on.

more soon.

Keep creating friends!

Locked Out (I forgot to hit the publish button last week)

Happy Monday's (November 12, 2012) everyone. I'm back from last weeks Thursday Friday Tokyo trips, and I've spent quite a chunk of time, betwixed lessons and lesson planning, organizing a portfolio for potential post Japan (if that is indeed what's in my future) ceramics studies. A more indepth explination of that weighty statement will follow in perhaps several weeks or months, but for now it will have to exist as a tantalizing tid bit of a hint of possible futures. The studio is locked, and the key in no where to be found, nor is the ever friendly Tabe Sensei. Thustly, today has been decreed a pottery free day. Yet my weird mind wonders its way to inspirations every time I sit infront of this glowing box with keys. Todays inspirations come from http://www.mckeachiejohnstonstudios.com/gallery.shtml?0001#all http://www.hopkinspottery.com/uploads/BryanHopkinsbyGlenBrownOct12Printed.pdf

FInals, busy, and wordy

Happy Thursday everyone! Everything survived the firing, and I just started the glazing process. Looking to work mostly in the reds and yellows from the last group of new glazes. There's a new blue green glaze that I am looking forward to trying out. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of the firing's results (but really it would just be the same picture as last time with a brighter shade of red).

School is really winding up for the end of term tests, and that means I don't have much time in the studio until summer vacation begins in mid July. This delay of reliable studio time means that I must get my ceramics fix in other ways. This weeks outlet . . . YOUTUBE! I've especially been enjoying clips of Warren MacKenzie at his wheel.

MacKenzie, a student of the man the myth - Bernard Leach, is an infamous figure in my mind. I first saw his work in one of my early issues of Ceramics Monthly alongside an article talking about his struggles to keep art collectors from exorbitantly raising the prices of his work. To me, this man is absolutely one of the best. Watching him at work and listening to some of his thoughts on the creation of objects intended for use and the role of the craft / art creator is a real pleasure, only available to me in my current residence through the glories of internet and its many pathways. 

 "It's not that you try to communicate, but you try to put something into the work which will be there for the person who uses it to find - if their sensitive. If they understand the language. You know?" 

One of my greatest struggles with ceramics, at this moment, is that I lack a mentor. There are days when I feel like I'm past the stage MacKenzie speaks of, where I've explored form and my creativity, but now I want to (I have to) push my technique. There are times at work, in the 10 minute breaks between cups of coffee and classes, where I look up the summer's ceramics courses at Penland and drool uncontrollably at the thought of having someone experienced to guide me. Sometimes I even catch myself rereading the Studio Visits in Ceramics Monthly. Just stuck mentally revisiting vignettes of different lives dedicated to the creation of beautiful objects.  I could ramble on my fantasies and the seeking of an unclouded view of my future all day and night for the next 10 months, but that is hardly an interesting read. 

Before I go! If you are kicking around the web itching to get a good fix of ceramics viewing for this week (and man do I know you are) check out the Tomio Koyama Gallery page and take a gander at the Function Dysfunction exhibition. It features one of my very favorite contemporary potters, Ani Kasten. Her work is just a continual inspiration! If you're in Japan and heading to Kyoto before the 14th of July go check out her work and tell me about it. Unfortunately for me, the exhibition's slideshow will have to suffice. 

Alright, I'd say that's enough of the wordy junk for a while. Have a great weekend. 

For Becky

One of my first memories of playing with clay was at a workshop in the basement of the Unitarian Church.  I was very young and my mother was with me. A husband and wife were teaching a lot of folks how to make slab built pots and simple sculptures. I don't remember much about the workshop to be honest.  I remember the finished product, a round blue flower vase with a clay maple leaf on it’s front.  

Becky last summer 

What I do remember, vividly, is how kind and patient the woman instructing me was. That is probably because throughout my life this couple’s kindness became a constant every time our paths crossed. I grew up an only child under the parentage of two artists (well, one former artist turned extreme art enthusiast / HR manager). This combination led to lots of time at local art shows, gallery openings, open houses, and art courses.  There are many faces from those days that became friends and mentors, but the couple I'm speaking of, Claude and Becky Deegan, stand out amongst the rest.

Becky took a pottery class at Parkersburg Community College and as far as I can tell made and sold pottery locally for many years. Becky and Claude would open their home during the holidays and serve hot apple cider and snacks while friends and customers walked about their beautiful home and studio looking at the works they had created. I have been eating off of Becky's pottery all of my life. She made a small baby dish for my parents when I was born. My mother tells me it was simple and the perfect size. She said it was my main bowl at feeding time. Becky's work was wonderfully functional, and when I returned home last summer for a visit I remember eating from her plates made being home feel even more . . . homey. I also learned that Becky was struggling with dementia. My parents and I visited the Deegan's home and studio and had a magnificent day. A friend of the family, and Becky's original ceramics instructor, Henry Aglio, was also there helping Becky continue to create pottery. They were in the middle of a firing. He said that making pots was really good for her, and that, even though some days she couldn't remember him or other things, she seemed to always remember parts of the creative process. It was a brilliant day. I took a lot of pictures of her more recent work. 

The new work Becky was producing last summer. 

Wednesday morning I received an early morning Skype call from my father informing me that Becky had passed away. My thoughts and heart go out to Claude and the rest of the Deegan family, but words offer little in the way of comfort when confronted with loss and sorrow. My childhood, and life, were better for having Becky's smile.

Dedicated to

The end of March has rolled around. The first traces of Spring's warmth  touch our days only to be blown out to sea by the chilled winds that come down the mountains to the coast. The weather isn't the only thing experiencing the winds of change. This time of year marks the end of the Japanese school year, and (to my mind) the strangest of Japan's different practices. If you are a teacher or administrator in the public school system there is a chance that you will receive a command from on high that you must change schools. Every year a certain percentage of teachers are shuffled. I asked around my office today and the general consensus seemed to be that no one (no matter age or ranking in the education system) stays at one school for more than 10 years. Five was the most frequently guessed number. The accepted reasons for this jumbling is that it keeps teachers from becoming too settled. By having to adjust to new environments and different coworkers everyone stays excited (hopefully) and avoids stagnation. 

For the younger teachers this systems seems to be an accepted frustration, but for me it means that my life at work could be changing in huge terrifying ways. There is a chance that my English department will change (I love my fellow English teachers, and, while I am sure others are nice, I don't care to exchange any of them for new faces), but even scarier - there is a chance that Tabe Sensei, the pottery and craft teacher, will be taken away from me. This leads me to (FINALLY) the point of today's post. 

It is my great pleasure to introduce Yuka Tabe. Mother of two, graduate of Kochi Gaidai, metal worker, ceramics enthusiast, Susaki high school teacher, and one of the BEST people I have had the pleasure of meeting. Tabe-sensei studies in college focused on education and craft. In college she loved working with metal, but has had to teach everything from painting to making glass beads. She conducts her classes in a way that allows the students to learn through doing and experimentation. The art classes are the most familiar feeling for these american eyes. The courses she runs seem much more like a dialog between students and teacher, instead of the teacher lecturing a class (which is how many of the other classes appear to go). I have had the pleasure of spending the past year and two thirds enjoying every day of work a little bit more because of the friendship she has given me.

We've shared many wonderful discussions on the different uses and forms that international clay artists have chosen to grow into. This dialog, often sparked by a shared gander at a fresh copy of Ceramics Monthly, frequently drifts toward the concept of function and tradition. Through gesture, dictionaries, and Japenglish I can gather that for some Japanese potters (or, dare I hazard to say artists in general) have the notion that there are forms and styles that are such a part of their history that there are methods that must be followed. That is not to say that Tabe-sensei says that there is no room for creativity in Japan, but that by following the more traditional shapes, glazes, and aesthetics the artist might become, in a way, more connected to their past. The designs and aesthetics she mentions manifest in our conversations, and in her pieces.

I could devote a whole new blog to writing out every kindness she has shown me over my time in Susaki. She's helped me meet local potters, spent days with me driving from gallery to gallery in the hopes of getting my work on display, and she's granted me access to the studio and tools that let me feed my ever growing pottery obsession. Without her kindness this blog simply wouldn't be possible, and I am so very thankful for her friendship. She is often so busy being a teacher, mother, and friend that I fear her creativity gets overshadowed. Like so many, she isn't creating works of art to seek money or recognition. She creates to teach others how to express themselves, and I find that very inspiring indeed.

Even if she has to change schools I know we'll stay in touch, but I figured it was important to share her huge contribution.

We'll see you on Thursday with some new work photos.