When
I first saw this vase, I couldn't help but conjure up memories of the original
TWIN PEAKS TV show. For those of you that remember the show, you will recall
the owl iconography that popped up during the short lived series. That aside,
this tall and boldly decorated owl vase shows off some wonderful brushwork for
which Suzuki Takuji is quite well known for whether it is under or over the
glaze his use of a brush doesn't disappoint. In this case the dark black
brushwork and decoration is under a soft, Persian blue style glaze that just
adds to the decoration of the two distinct, yet different strigiformes that
flank either side of the vase with medallions encircling each and linear
designs on each side adding to the vertical feel of the full round body. At
nearly 13" tall, this vase has a great presence and gives an insight as
skill set of this creative potter. If you are so inclined, you can see more of
this vase over on my Trocadero marketplace by following this link;
https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1409229/PERSIAN-OWL-VASE-BY-SUZUKI-TAKUJI
For
quite some time now I have discovered that ink can be my friend when setting up
various designs to carve, in this case a Fishin' design orchestrated around a
molded square plate form. Using three parts water to one part ink to stretch it
out, I can work out a design and figure out where various elements should go as
you can see in this photo. It is not exactly the "measure twice, cut
once" method but I can tell you once you have started to incise or carve a
design, you are locked in to how and where the design goes. Quite a few of
these designs are worked out in advance on scrap pieces of paper, many recycled
from my wife's home office which allows me to fine tune the decoration as much
as possible until it is time to render it on a
three dimensional form. Granted despite these efforts, not every design
translates from paper to pot and some designs just don't work because they are
not very good or interesting but I can tell you that far fewer pieces end up in
the clay recycle than they used to before I decided that "if you take your
time, you get a more harmonious outcome".
I'll start out by saying that I intentionally altered the "brightness" of
this photo so that you can see the details just a bit better and in doing so
may have altered the actual color of this piece. I say may have because
obviously this is not my photo nor have I seen this piece in hand but I think
we are close enough to the actual visual values of the pot and seeing the piece
a bit better is worth the risk in my opinion. This particular Touko-ao tsubo is
a bit different than many that you see, it has a classic medieval Persian urn form with
accented lobes to alter the pot just a bit and then has the wonderful dark
indigo blue to black decoration that immediately brings Kato Kenji to mind. The
opaque style glaze just gives the piece a sense of age, a classic surface that
doesn't obscure the decoration or form but simply enhances it all the while dancing
on the razor's edge between the old and the new. When the pot was glazed, Kato
Kenji decided to allow the rich earthenware to speak up and act as a eloquent
contributor to the overall presentation which is juxtaposed so well against the
archaic Persian blue appearance. Though not a large pot in scale and despite
its quiet and serene nature, this signature style tsubo has both the elegance
and nobility that echoes across time from the ageless archetype to present day.
I
suspect this is something you don't see every day, it is a traditional off white silk obi with a brushed design
by none other than Tomimoto Kenkichi.
Painted in three distinct tones of blue imitating his brilliant
sometsuke painting, this quaint and quiet scene is one of Tomimoto's classic
designs and can be seen on a number of his pottery pieces from stoneware,
slipware and porcelain in blue and white decoration. Tomimoto was a rather diverse artist and is
known for everything from printmaking to pottery with a number of kimono and
obi that he designed and/or decorated being extant. I realize that this is not
exactly pottery related other than in a circuitous manner but in Japanese arts each thing is related to another
in both direct and subtle ways and it is quite easy to image Tomimoto
decorating using this design on a piece of porcelain as easily as it is to
imagine him decorating this somewhat unique obi.
"Excellence is
doing ordinary things extraordinarily well." John W. Gardner
Typical
Monday, made a good solid plan for studio tasks on Sunday and executed it
today. These three in a row covered pieces and lids are close to the finishing
touches for, you guessed it, the third kiln load of pots that should finish
this terra cotta cycle. On the board are two taller covered forms and one covered
serving bowl, all three will be finished off in carved black slip, tebori style
with something just a bit new added. At the moment I am unclear what the next
cycle will be and I suspect due to some back log it is likely to be terra cotta.
Though I have a few things in stoneware I would like to pursue for myself, orders
and commissions take precedence over
following an idea at the moment. I have to admit, I love making covered
pots from serving bowls to cap jars and beyond, truth is that I really enjoy
covered pots in general as well, especially mizusashi. The hidden space, the
volume hinted at from the form interests me plus the bonus of the mysterious
contents. Over the years I have had customers tell me that they use my lidded
pieces for every conceivable use from pet food to the final resting place of
loved ones (i.e. ashes) which has also included the ashes of a cremated pet
snake which was fired on one of my large plates that I had made, garbage fired
style and later housed in a jar from the same firing, well what little was left
over. This leads me to wonder what's in your jar?
(And just in case
someone wants to know why three, it is simple, that is all that fits on an
average ware board.)
Illustrated
is a rather well fired Shigaraki chaire by veteran potter, Okano Hosei
(b.1937). The chaire looks like it is right out of the feudal past and the
volume of the piece is quite easy to imagine clothed in an all natural ash surface like a tailored suit. The battle between clay and fire is well on
display as varying ash effects compete to depict the fierce
interaction with beautiful areas of a brown tinged bidoro running down the face
adding a hint of verticality to the pot. This chaire is rather classic and even
typical of the vocabulary of surfaces that are seen on Okano's pottery show
casing an experienced sensitivity of the demands of the form and where they are
to be placed in the kiln gleaned from decades of experience. On a side note in1982
a piece by Okano Hosei was gifted from then prime Minister Nakasone to visiting
President Ronald Regan and then again an Okano "souvenir" (omiyage?) was given to visiting Mikal Gorbachev
in 1993. I guess there could be far worse gifts than a nice little gem like
this medieval chaire, I usually get socks.
I
had meant to put this photo up a while back when I actually had the piece in my
hands and it was for sale but it honestly just slipped my mind. What really
interests me in this piece beside the vivid use of Oribe glaze and the strong
form is the way the clay was cut, ripped and even brutalized to create such a
wild topography, a narrative of movement and spirit. One thing I can say about
this mizusashi is that there are details everywhere you look that catch the eye
and show off the talents of Higashida Shigemasa that carries on from one pot to
the next, a way he handles clay that leaves no doubt as to who made the piece.
Though not exactly a predictable surface, what is clear in Higashida's work is
an almost deconstruction of the pot from without and a tense and dramatic volume
from within striking a near perfect balance in how he sees and creates his
forms. The last thing I would like to point out is how casually the glaze
appears to have been applied with areas of rich, running green enhancing the
landscape of the mizusashi where the clay texture is clear to see just adding
more depth and life to what is a rather nice pot even if you aren't a huge
Oribe fan.
A
lot of the summer heat has gone and now it makes working in the studio much
more enjoyable at a time when I get quite a bit busier. The last two cycles
have been terra cotta pieces focused around the abstrakt resist, black &
white slipware, tebori and the newer
snowberry pieces and variants on that theme. The illustrated gang of four shows
off four stacked snowberry pieces which were part of a series of twelve bowls
of similar weight and size though the decoration is entirely freehanded without
any measurement at all relying on what seems right more than exact, precise
repetition. I prefer this methodology when working using approximately the same
amount of clay for each piece without weighing them and then just adding the decoration
as I get to each piece though I do admit to using ink to ballpark varying
segments breaking down the bowl into 3, 4, 6 or 8 areas. I am sure there are
potters and customers who prefer a more exacting approach to the finished
product and that's fine but this works for me, fits my temperament and
certainly goes best with the music that I listen to.
I am constantly in awe of
those details, the finer points that tell you so much about a pot and to be
quite frank, about the potter. The detail shot of this Shigaraki henko is
imbued with a strength and power which blends a medieval aesthetic with a sense
of stream lined modernism that few are capable of instilling in their work.
Admittedly, the firing process should take some of the credit, but it is the
potter, in this case Furutani Michio who made the clay, worked out an idea and
manifest it in this plastic material. Through his exceptional knowledge of kiln
building, built a kiln, well numerous kilns, choose the right combinations of
woods and out of all of this experimentation, effort and expertise comes pot
after pot that was only a spark, an inclination before the potter intervened. I
think there is magic in the works of potters like Furutani Michio and through
small glimpses in to the details of their works, you can isolate the wizardry
and alchemy that perpetually fascinate.
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.
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