Wednesday, April 27, 2011

GIRI

Illustrated is a richly ash glazed covered jar by William Henry Klock. This stamped east meets west jar was made shortly after Bill worked in South Korea and visited and studied the Onggi potters. As I have mentioned before, Bill was a Leach student and this pot surely shows the cross cultural combination of English, American and Asian influences.


On a trip to upstate NY to work with Bill back in the mid-90’s, I bought a group of his pots to bring back to Cleveland as gifts for two very kind patrons who helped me start my studio up. Though I would have loved to keep this jar, I gave each a choice of what pot they would like and one picked this jar and the other pot to go was a wonderful teapot in the same style. Oh well, there is no doubt that I miss this pot, but at the same time, the patronage I received in Cleveland was instrumental to my becoming a full time potter. There was no way I could not give the best pots for such support. The pot lives on somewhere out in the real world and in my senses that recall this wonderful pot.