CUM SENEX IN CUM NOVO

Everything that needs to be done is done at this point for the holidays and end of the year though I fired one last kiln yesterday and packed up some pots and needed to get them shipped out today. The last firing, likely to be the last firing of the year was a loose terra cotta kiln with a variety of B&W slipware, snowberries, a few still lives and a group of tebori carved slip pieces, about two dozen pieces in all with a few teabowls thrown in for good measure. This "landscapeman" v-bowl was photographed just after it was carved where you can clearly see the ink layout to orchestrate the overall design on the bowl. Dried, glazed and fired these pieces present a fun, hopefully joyful appearance that is deep rooted in the past, a bit like carved steles, Nazca lines and cave painting imagery and much more all jumbled together to become these "landscapeman" designs. I thought it fitting that this bowl was the last piece made, other than a few test pieces to process, seemingly celebrating; out with the old and in with the new (cum senex in cum novo).