FRACTURED ICE

What a wondrous thing that glazes can be, whether they are naturally occurring or composed like some alchemists symphony, the possibility and effects are endless. When I really think about glazes is that they have the distinct possibility to present defined galaxies within their surfaces painting ominous and somber realms to those of great visual intensity as if a sun has gone supernova within them. Though there are a great number of stellar pots that bare no glaze and submit to the viewer as naked form, there are an equal number that are only completed with the addition of glaze and decoration adding depth and profundity to the canvas that is clay. Illustrated is a close up of a rich and evocative kannyu style seiji glaze that almost radiates the cold like the fractured ice that it seemingly imitates. I find these cracked and fractured surfaces to be mysterious and compelling leading me along in a narrative that the potter, clay and glazes has created. In this case, this detail shot is of a tall and elegant bottle-vase made by Minegishi Seiko only a few years ago of tapering form with lobes running vertically accentuating the stature of the piece and the glaze which descends into the depression; a perfect meld of the Chinese archetype and the Japanese interpretation. More images to follow.

KANNYU

Illustrated is a modern classic beishokuji kannyu vase by celadon master; Minegishi Seiko (b.1952). The details around the mouth and waist of the form accentuate the double refractive quality of the glaze with the yellow-brown tone being enhanced by the iron rich clay the pot was thrown from. Minegishi Seiko  considers himself largely self-taught and his early work is a wonderfully elegant kohiki style heavily influenced by Korean pottery and though he continues to use some of his earlier forms, his more modern celadon work is literally night and day from his first footsteps in to pottery. This celadon vase was made in Nasu where he has his studio and kiln, located in Tochigi Prefecture and the center of his creation and constant experimentation in glaze making, forms and surface decoration. Though Minegishi is very well known for his unique shinogi (ridgeline) technique that is just masterful with the kannyu style glazes, it is the depth and beauty of his calmer forms that transcend his pots into a world of contemplation and reflection, painting a fractal universe in three dimensions.