Friday, March 1, 2013

IT'S ABOUT FORM, IT'S ABOUT SPACE

Form is truly magical, whether natural or manmade, it is responsible for everything you see from Fujiyama to the Pyramids and even you and me. Studying form is a wondrous pastime and among pottery, a great way to study pure form is to look at the great Chinese monochrome porcelains. They are uncluttered, most stripped to the barest essentials and pure in their creation. Over the years I have been influenced by a wide variety of monochrome pots while working out different forms that I am throwing, the illustrated pot is just such an example. This particular vase, measures just over 13" and is part of a group of pieces that owe their genesis to a Chinese vase I saw at the ROM many years back. Glazed in my dark, rich temmoku, the simple form called for simple glazing in monochrome with the interior of the foot ring being glazed in clear to add the stark contrast.  Though I have made these forms in various sizes and glazes over the years, it is the monochrome versions that give the fullest accounting of the form and the space which the pot commands. The simpler the pot and the glazing, there more it is all about form and space.

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