CLOSE ENCOUNTERS III

While working at Cleveland State there was a student there who made what came to be known as "brain-ware", odd ovalled forms with a super thick application of Gustin's Shino. Once fired, the really thick glaze would curdle and crawl to resemble what is in effect, a human brain and the maker was thrilled with the pieces though Dick (Schneider) and I were certainly less so as when it didn't work, the crawled glaze ended up too much for the forms and dripped all over the shelves, thank goodness for kiln-wash. I suspect at this point if you waded through some droll story about my days back at CSU that this illustrated detail has something to do with the moment of nostalgia.

The illustrated detail is from a larger Oni-Shino vase form by Tsukigata Nahiko and like in many other close-up pictures, I think this really gives an insight in to his surfaces that a simple overall photo would lack. The surface is alive with all the elements that make Oni-Shino so potent, rich and complex; the thick Shino glaze has crawled, curdled a bit allowing the rich iron underneath to percolated up and into the crevices between the nodules of feldspar with the entire surface coated in a thin by unmistakable layer of natural ash from the intensity and ferocity of the wood firing each of these pots is subjected to. Beyond the obvious and mesmerizing complexity of the surface there is a jubilant exclamation of texture both visually and tactilely that heightens the impact of this work and makes the viewer all the richer for the close encounter.