CRUCIBLE

The Kumano Northern guinomi got me thinking about a number of Kumano jpegs that I have had on the computer for some time now. One picture in particular that stood out was this illustrated shot of a Kumano chawan just lounging, perhaps hiding in the shadows but bathed in a swath of direct sunlight. The thick, curdled Kumano Shino glaze is covered over in a wet, glassy coating of natural ash built up during his intense, other worldly firings while the back of the bowl has blushed to an almost angry fiery, orange color creating quite a contrast to the face. These encounters leave me with a true sense of awe where the aggressive act of the firing process, masculine presence and form combined with a herculean spirit are locked in some form of visual combat which further moves the narrative of idea, creation and process to a new level. From my perspective it is quite easy to get wordy in describing the work of Kumano as his chawan emerge from the crucible forged but just out of reach of both logic and intuition.