I
clearly remember the first time I saw someone seriously alter a thrown pot, it
was during a Ron Meyers demo in which he threw a soft and casual cylinder and
just picked it right off the wheel head and pushed it oval to form the basis of
an oval baker form. I had only been making pots for less than a year when I saw
this and what it immediately instilled in me was that almost (!) anything is
possible with clay. I have seen the spectrum from magnificent trompe l'oeil to
the abstract sculpture of Volkos and just a bit of everything in between and I
am always impressed at what clay is capable of; infinite artists, infinite
possibilities. After seeing Meyers work, I set about trying to figure out how
this approach applied to me and what I see in my head and started making simple
oval bakers, squared forms and other thrown and altered pieces and after a trip
to Nara I became exceptionally interested in Japanese bells, dotaku.
Over
the years I have made a wide array of t&a forms based on dotaku with the
most interesting and creative to make are the one that are thrown, altered, cut
and reassembled to create crisp lines, ribs and other accentuated high points
such as the one in the illustration. This bell form was glazed in my ame-yu
with copper accents creating an alternating rain pattern on each concave level
and is finished off with impressed lugs and a neck and mouth which mimics the
form. When I look at these forms it is almost inconceivable that the genesis
was a Ron Meyers demo but the seed was planted, took hold and came out as
something that is easily associated with who I am and how I work, I don't think
I could really ask for more.
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