In
strange and trying times I wanted to wish one and all a very Happy Fourth of
July. I believe that now more than ever it is of greater importance to dwell on
what unites us than that which divides and weakens us as a nation combating
issues on multiple fronts and I am reminded of this simple quote by one of the
founding fathers who along with his contemporaries sacrificed so much in an
effort to create a "more perfect union".
"Then join in
hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall." John Dickinson
Things
being what they are during these strange days, I have had a bit more time and
went ahead and made up a handful of slideshow videos. This slideshow video is
of the Enomoto Kyousuke Shino chawan that I photographed some weeks back. I
think this video gives an insight in to the atmosphere, texture and depth of
the glaze and the neat details that bring this Enomoto chawan to life. Beyond
the thick, fat white Shino, two other features that show an attention to detail
is how the bowl is lobed altering the symmetry of the form and the simple way
in which the wari-kodai is articulated sloping inward and limiting contact with
whatever surface it commands. I hope this short video gives a sense of what
this Shino chawan is like in hand.
At
first thought you may wonder what do Jackson Pollack and The Heino(s) have in
common and from my perspective it is about
application. Pollack is Pollack and I think anyone that knows his work
also understands his method and application, for Gertrude and Otto Heino I
remember seeing these stoneware pots, from small to large with vivid slashes
and drips of oxides and glazes decorating the pots. My first thought way back
in the early days of decorating was how do you combine these two ideals to
animate and liven up a surface and while playing around way back at CSU I came
up with this idea of Pollack's windows where there where slightly asymmetrical
squares across a dark black background on terra cotta with splashes and trails
of color and slips across the surface, in the end it just reminded me of
fireworks going off and decorating the pieces.
Flash forward to a
recent request from a long time customer who wanted something for a July 4th
tea ceremony he was having. Since he has ordered terra cotta pieces as well as
stoneware I suggest this hanabi (sky flower) style decoration for his
commission of teabowl, mizusashi, kensui, futaoki, kensui and shakutate. I set
about making a pair of teabowls first to see if it worked for him and got his
approval to make the entire set which has been completed and shipped out with
actual time to spare. What is illustrated is the ghost piece, the shadow set as
I only made one lid rest, waste water bowl and ladle stand which may not have
been the smartest thing but it ended up working out. As you can see what ties
these pieces together id the specific white decoration that is on all the
pieces as well as the limited use of splashed colors being confined to red
iron, grey and a teal blue. These are fun to decorate but a bit messy and with
the right consistency and brush there is a small degree of control that you can
exert, all I can say now is Happy Forth!
You can see more of this trio
over on my Trocadero webpage;
I
took a large group of photos of a Furutani Kazuya chawan some months back and
put them in a folder and only recently really looked them over. As soon as I
saw this particular picture, a detail of the mikomi, the pool and interior I
was reminded of a favorite poem by Matsuo Basho that I think about from time to
time while enjoying the moonlight piercing the trees throughout the Mohawk River Valley. This detail
shot clearly shows the beautiful build up of natural ash inside the chawan
creating a deep green pool with areas of fractured crust that tried building up
on the liquid contents at the height of the firing. It is quite easy to see all
of the rivers of ash moving into the lowest point of the chawan's interior
painting a wonderful if unintentional pattern which is honestly made even more
brilliant by the addition of the sun. As I am often reminded, this is only a
solitary detail but even so, I can do with details like this singular or
otherwise in all the wood fired pots that I get to see and handle.
I
have a friend that now and again sends me close-up or detail photos of pots he
has either collected or recently handled, sort of a Name That Tune kind of
things only in this case, who made the pot. I will be honest, I usually do
fairly well, perhaps I get 90% or so right though when it comes to detail shots
of the various wood fired traditions or things like sometsuke ware it can get a
bit difficult. Prior to this photo I was sent a picture that showed the very
top of an abstract mountain rendered in underglaze blue which was
obviously a student of Kondo Yuzo so I
jumped right to Kondo Hiroshi except it was actually painted by Shinoda Gi'ichi
and there were clues I ignored.
That brings me to this unusual detail
shot which was actually quite easy as I had actually only recently seen this
very piece made by Morino Kako, a master of glazes and father of Morino Taimei.
The bottle has this rather unusual red, iron base glaze with areas of
transparent green crazed glaze and where the two meet it creates these
brilliant boundaries of black, gold and other iridescent effects which I can
say I have only seen on Kako's pottery. In looking though several catalogues on
Morino Kako, the majority of pieces glazed in this fashion were made later in
life and some of the forms are quite playful in there geometry with this piece
being a simple, small rectangular henko though punctuated with these brilliant,
cosmic storms around the pot surface making for a much larger scale than the
dimensions may necessarily imply.
I
have probably mentioned on an occasion or two that I am very influenced by the
pitchers and jugs of the late Bill Klock and having had the chance to handle
quite a few of them, I hope I have learned a thing or two or even three. The biggest
problem with Bill's pitchers and jugs is that for quite some time I was very
intimidated by them and only on the rarest occasion did I throw any and
truthfully they were just too close to his pieces. In order to move on I spent
a fair amount of time learning about and searching out medieval and earlier
pitchers in order to make my way clear of the shadow of Bill's pots and this
particular form is one that I settled on and still make to this day. This
temmoku, stamped jug isn't terribly large at about 12" tall but it has a
strict, almost formal form that is broken up with the deeply impressed designs
around the widest point of the belly and the exaggerated throwing rings around
the neck. The temmoku also has broken nicely on either side of the handle
creating a framework for the deep rich glaze in between either edge and all
told just enough detail has been added to break up the surface and give the pot
the right amount of eye appeal. This is just a jug, nothing more but there are
lessons learned from Bill Klock, Warren MacKenzie and others in this pot but
they are subtle and I would like to think the bigger picture is all about how I
see and make pottery just outside the cast shadow.
Visual
depth and enticing clarity are clearly on display on this cool pool of comforting and
alluring azure blue as created by Heki-yu specialist Kimura Yoshiro. Whenever I
handle this piece, especially as the temperatures begin to climb I find myself
moving from light source to light source trying to pull out every nuance and
detail from the rich azure pool. Created as the glaze was made liquid by the
heat of the firing allowing the contents to build up and fashion a mystifying
gem as if created in the crucible of a dying sun or in this case a potter's
kiln. I believe I have posted this guinomi in a previous blog post and hate to
be redundant but this detail only recently captured while the piece was showing
off in the sunlight made for a clear example of what it is about Kimura
Yoshiro's works that is so intoxicating .Succinctly put there is a dramatic merger of simplicity and seduction in
this case in the form of a glaze which becomes all the more alluring the
thicker it becomes. Though intended for a specific function I can never bring
myself to obscure the pool with any contents, spirited or otherwise.
"Ringed
with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; he
watches from his mountain walls, and like a thunderbolt he falls." From THE EAGLE by Alfred Lord Tennyson
I
have always been fascinated as much by what people have collected as how they
have it displayed. In some cases the displays are almost clinical and sterile, some just have pots stacked everywhere (which I personally dislike) while others have their objects
interspersed within the home to be lived with. Perhaps one of the most enduring
images I have is from a visit with a potter while at Haystack, the display was
arranged on a wonderful old and folky pie safe with a brilliant array of pots
by Jeff Oestreich and Michael Simon, a display that continues to resonate to
this day. As soon as I saw this photo of a rather totemic balancing act I was
reminded that not ever collector is a collector but rather people just living
with "stuff" in an intimate and connected way, a structured and for
some, a contemplative environment. In this case, a larger Michael Simon Persian
box acts as a platform for a slightly smaller one with safe, rubber cushions
added to the feet to protect the lid from any contact issues as well as adding
a good degree of traction. I really like this Michael Simon totem that surely
shows off the forms and decoration to great effect and since they are just
adjacent to the window the light show must be truly inspired day in and day out.
Did
I mention they are just off the countertop and well within reach of an
adventurous and inquisitive cat?
Maybe
a month or so ago I sent a heavily faceted teabowl to a customer out West, I
had shown them three bowl and they picked the one they wanted. When the bowl
arrived the customer was a bit unhappy with the piece because there was a patch
of clay showing on the inside of the teabowl where I had torn through the clay
while faceting the piece. In my defense I use patches to fix violently faceted
pieces and the patches are applied
and not totally blended in on the outside (or the inside for that matter) of the
piece as to not try to hide it, it just becomes part of the process.
I
offered the customer a refund but they choose one of the other two teabowls and
I sent it to them and it arrived without incidence and I had them just keep the original bowl. The bowl that was chosen
was also rather dramatically faceted but during the process there were no
errant slices through the clay. Several weeks later an envelope came from the
very same customer with a check for the patched bowl which was now up on a
shelf and perhaps better understood and appreciated then when it arrived.
Thanks!
Illustrated here is not the teabowl in question but is a
recently "patched" teabowl where the patch is clearly hiding in plain
sight. As you can see the facets are deep, violent and spontaneous which as one
can imagine does lead to the occasional mishap which is easily repaired with a
small piece of the recently faceted clay.
Its somewhat "golden
brown" so enjoy it for what it is.
Direct,
quick and uncomplicated are a few good adjectives that could describe this
simple Oribe kogo made by Sawa Katsunori. Well schooled in the Shiaraki
tradition which he studied with his father, Sawa Kiyotsugu and that of the
various Mino traditions under the tutelage of Suzuki Goro, Katsunori moves
between the styles quite often and at times blending the traditions like in
this kogo that bares a style and crispness of a wood fired pot with the semi-transparency
of his Oribe. As I pointed out this is neither a complicated or fussed over
form which is to me the strong points of the piece, it is simplicity, antiquity
and intuition blended that has created this thoughtful and utilitarian object.
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