WHITE OUT

We have had our share of weather here for the past two weeks being on the fringe of the three seperate Nor'easters that have hit this region but today the sun is out creating a virtual white out as the treees, ground and building are covered in snow and the drips of the melt can be seen and heard every where. The mood as you look out the windows made me think back on a wonderous Miwa Kyusetsu Hagi chawan owned by a friend of mine. It is broad, generous and full of spirit as it creates its own visual white out as you survey the form with hints of the rich daido clay peaking through crawling in the glaze and at the foot where the glaze is either thinning or non-existent. I really like this chawan, though large it is not as large as some of Kyusetsu's (Jyusetsu) later more sculptural and statement oriented pieces, the crawling is just the right amount of activity to activate and animate the surface and the posture of the chawan, foot and lip all present a form directed by purpose and a particular aesthetic. Thanks to the  intimate scale of this chawan, I can't help but see a snow covered universe held firmly in one's hands.

WOOD & STRAW

I assembled a short video slideshow of a Hagi vase by Yamato Yoshitaka (1944-2010). The vase loosely based on ancient jade ritual vessels known as a "cong" which appeared as early as 3300 BCE; these forms are also seen in bronze, glass and ceramics, most notably in Chinese celadons. Covered in a glaze made of a mixture of wood and straw ash, the milky quality of the surface cloaks the carved, slip covered clay creating a number of color variations that run from milky blue to lavender making for a wonderful keshiki landscape. This pot has a sense of antiquity to it, despite being made in the past 20 years or so but this is one of the alluring aspects of this type of Hagi glaze and the touch of a potter who understands both his medium and its classical tradition.