THE HUE BLUE

For a good part of my life I never really thought much about the color blue and even when I started making pottery, blue was not paramount in my decoration or glazing scheme. I think this changed after two separate encounters where the hue seemed to just sneak up on me, the one was a large blue pot by Takezu Toshiko and the other was my first trip to the Kawai Museum in 1990 where like red glazes, it became abundantly clear that blue had its place just not on every last pot. After those encounters I realized I had to reconsider blue and embrace the fact that cobalt can be your friend and has its time and place.     

Illustrated is a glaze that has had a profound affect on my glazing, gosu and in this case on a fat, voluminous vase form by Kawai Hisashi. Though not exactly a large pot its appearance betrays its size and the application of the gosu glaze is just perfect for the form and decoration. Thrown out of a slightly coarse white stoneware, Kawai Hisashi has carved the surface to maximum affect and bringing movement and life to the pot, articulated in dimension and visually, the gosu becomes deep blue pools and trails where it fills recesses and occupies the vertical channels adding even more depth to the surface. I must admit, gosu or not, it is enjoyable studying the works of the Kawai school though Kanjiro is even nicer but seeing this blue put to such good use shows that the life's work of a master, lives on in his students and students' students especially as they find their own style and voice as this carved gosu tsubo clearly shows.  

"Blue thou art, intensely blue; Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue?"  James Montgomery