Pedestal Fruit bowl

I wanted to share the beautiful Ikebana that Jose Juico has made for my pots for my Spring studio sale.  They were simply magnificent.

José Juico is gifted in the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging known as “Ikebana.” The word “ikebana” means Living Flowers or Bringing Flowers to Life.   He has brought my pots to life in unexpected ways.

José has been practicing Ikebana for 15 years. He is a 4th degree Master of the Ohara school and a “Junkakyo” instructor 3rd grade in the Ikenobo school.

Strawberry dish with moss

Long serving platter

Oval serving bowl

Mixing Bowl

Shino vase

A group project in Monday’s colored clay class produced a “fabric” of flowers which we used to make mugs.  Good fun in the spirit of Spring!

clay slab of flowers

mugs made from the slab

Shino porcelain pitcher

Come to the Frogtowne Art Party.  Good People, lovely gallery.

I’m glad to begin to show my work at Frogtowne and will have a display of pots at the Opening, Saturday Night from 6 to 9 PM

CLAYBODY will be having a group show at the Art Trust in West Chester, opening Friday night.  Tim Knight, a Spring City Artist who creates beautiful atmospherically fired vessels, has been invited to show with us. Come help us celebrate a reunion of CLAYBODY in our first show together in over a year.

Inside this clay jug

there are canyons and

pine mountains,

and the maker of canyons

and pine mountains!

All seven oceans are inside,

and hundreds of millions of stars.

The acid that tests gold is here,

and the one who judges jewels.

And the music

that comes from the strings

that no one touches,

and the source of all water.

If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth:

Friend, listen: the God whom I love is inside.

- Kabir, version by Robert Bly

Czeslaw Milosz

Rose-colored cup and saucer,

Flowery demitasses:

You lie beside the river

Where an armored column passes.

Winds from across the meadow

Sprinkle the banks with down;

A torn apple tree’s shadow

Falls on the muddy path;

The ground everywhere is strewn

With bits of brittle froth–

Of all things broken and lost

Porcelain troubles me most.

Before the first red tones

Begin to warm the sky

The earth wakes up, and moans.

It is the small sad cry

Of cups and saucers cracking,

The masters’ precious dream

Of roses, of mowers raking,

And shepherds on the lawn.

The black underground stream

Swallows the frozen swan.

This morning, as I walked past,

The porcelain troubled me most.

The blackened plain spreads out

To where the horizon blurs

In a litter of handle and spout,

A lively pulp that stirs

And crunches under my feet.

Pretty useless foam:

Your stained colors are sweet,

Splattered in dirty waves

Flecking the fresh black loam

In the mounds of these new graves.

In sorrow and pain and cost,

Sir, porcelain troubles me most.

Washington DC, 1947

On Dec. 11th, Malcolm Davis died.

When NCECA had it’s convention in Philadelphia, Malcolm Davis gave the closing speech.   It was a wonderful and moving speech. Pretty funny in parts, – someone when introduced to him said, “Malcolm Davis?  I thought you were a glaze!” I guess all of us shino lovers do indeed have a Malcolm Shino glaze bucket in our studio. His carbon trapped pots have been inspirational.

I listened to the speech again when I heard of his death.  Here’s a more serious excerpt that speaks to the question of why we make pots:

“But my greatest personal struggle all these years has been to come to terms with the fact that I left the active struggle for social justice to make pots and dishes for the privileged, adding more clutter to the cosmic dump. Look at the mess we are in: wars in two foreign lands and the global was on terror; an economy in shambles; millions losing their jobs, homes, and health care. Corporate giants control the Congress and the Media. The fragile planet that we so dearly love and so greedily exploit shows signs of imminent demise.

And here we are playing in the mud. Why do we make pots? Why do we work in clay? Does it serve any useful social function? Is it merely self- indulgence? Egotism? Escapism? Privilege? Is our work with clay just selfish, useless, superfluous? Are we just fiddling while Rome burns? As I was preparing these remarks, news arrived about the escalating catastrophe in Haiti, making this conversation once again both urgent and inadequate.”

He later responds:

“I continue to grapple with this question as I continue to make pots. I can do no other, for this journey for me was not so much a matter of choice, as of destiny. What we do with the clay, what we create with our hands, what we offer up from our spirits may not end racism or stop injustice, but it may just help keep our culture human.”

Link to the NCECA speech

My studio will continue to be open daily from 12 to 6PM throughout December.  If you’d like to visit, please call to let me know you are coming.  610 551-2796.

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