Art

When I returned to ceramics after a break of nearly twenty years, I became obsessed with perfectly formed objects. I lusted after Korean celadon tea cups and Japanese woodfired tea bowls. The perfection of Les Blakeborough’s porcelain made my soul shiver and Gwyn Hannsen Piggot’s still life arrangements were to die for.

In my first year of ceramic study I only kept one piece of work and I was incredibly hard on myself. I set my standards so high that I was destined to fail. I don’t know if this was a subconsciuos act of sabatoge or not, though I suspect it probably was. At the end of my second year of study I had relaxed a bit and was starting to produce work that had potential.

The last three years have been incredibly difficult as well as incredibly rewarding. I have learned to relax and I have stopped being so hyper critical of my own work. Stopping drinking has been the catalyst for this new kindness to myself as has the support of you my internetz.Through your eyes I have been able to view myself as a bonafide artist, though I still have moments when I am sure someone is going to look at my work and say that isn’t good enough you aren’t an artist at all.

I have come to a place where I am happy with myself and with my work. I have stopped fighting my nature and my ceramics have improved because of it.

So instead of trying to make delicate teacups that look capable of floating off the table. I am making work that soothes my soul. The dead albatross bowls and handbuilt platters make my heart sing. My slipcast work satisfies my longing for beauty and elegance though they will never be perfectly formed and will always look very hand made. My catch cry of late has become if you want perfection go and buy it from the kitchen section of a large department store.

Now I am making ceramic rocks. These rock bowls are a beginning of a ceramic exploration of ideas. I am trying to get an earthy, natural feel balanced with a crisp inner beauty. The outside surface will remain matte and rock-like whilst the inside should be lovely and shiny and crystalline.

These bowls are in the kiln at the moment and I will get to see whether they have worked or not on Wednesday. They are very heavy and I will have to work on that as they will cost a fortune to ship. It would be like I was trying to post a brick.

So this is where I am at, at the moment. I still haven’t started on the dragon eggs yet, though I have started an extensive programme of glaze testing. I am planning on using the Easter break to make the dragon egg mould as well as a number of other projects I have on the go.

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I think about making pots all the time.Everything I do somehow seems to lead back to ceramics.I will be doing the laundry and the swirl of the soap bubbles will spin me off into a daydream about decoration. When we bought my new combustion stove home last week, I was thrilled to discover it had a slidy-outy ash tray thingy. My first thought on seeing that was, “Oh yeah! Now I can really get some good, pristine ash for a glaze.”

It is the same with my photographs. I was cloud watching the other evening and as I was photographing the sky my brain was busily skipping along on ceramic tangents.”Mmm a bold orange streak on a blue background, now that would work.Why didn’t I think of that before? Look at those colours, they work beautifully together. Oh look is that a dragon,why do I see dragons all the time? The Chinese made cool dragons,I wish I could make a dragon. I must make a ceramic horse as well, I wonder if I could slipcast one? And on and on it goes. The inside of my head is a very busy place.

The spouse will see me photographing the sky and draw my attention to a cloud he thinks I will like, but he isn’t privy to the racing torrent of ideas that fill my head with ceramic dreams.He thinks I just like clouds.

I borrowed a book from the library a few weeks ago on Innuit Women Artists. I didn’t get much of a chance to do anything other than skim through the book, quickly glancing at the photographs of their work. But a thought occurred to me and it richocheted loudly around in my head for days.These women make what they see, their art is inspired by what they see everyday.

Finally everything has started to fall into place for me artistically.I have started to make some large bowls and platters that have some guts, that work, that I actually really like and enjoy making, simply because I haven’t been making against my nature. (yay)

The piece of firewood inspired the large bowl that is shown next to it.

Inspiration Work in progress, the pink bit will change to dark blue once it has been fired.