Friday, November 8, 2013

LYRICAL PATTERN

A friend sent me this picture that he found somewhere on the web, so I apologize if this is your picture. At first glance it looks like a Kawai school pot, possibly even Ueda Tsuneji, but in fact, it is another Kimura Ichiro molded vase, this time in vivid and active nerikomi patterning. Using his stoneware with oxides to darken it, Kimura made slabs out of the three clays, patterned together to push into a press mold made in the style of his teacher, Hamada Shoji. This bottle shape is very common and it is the subtle nuances that sets the potters apart as much as the decoration and glazing. The bottle, glazed in a thin clear has developed wonderfully lyrical pattern which emphasizes not only the vertical but the horizontal nature of the pot. I love the movement of the pot and once again, Kimura proves the value of two tried and true techniques in molded bottle and nerikomi but succeeds in making a personal statement with his own creative voice within the large body of Mashiko pottery.

"A man's style is his mind's voice. Wooden minds, wooden voices."   Ralph Waldo Emerson