Ceramics Monthly Jan86 Cei01
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William C. Hunt........................................ Editor Barbara Tipton ...................... Associate Editor Robert L. Creager ........................ Art Director Ruth C. Butler............................. Copy Editor Valentina Rojo ...................... Editorial Assistant Mary Rushley................ Circulation Manager Mary E. Beaver. Circulation Assistant Jayne Lohr .................... Circulation Assistant Connie Belcher .... Advertising Manager Spencer L. Davis.............................. Publisher Editorial, Advertising and Circulation Offices 1609 Northwest Boulevard Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212 (614) 488-8236 Ceramics Monthly (ISSN 0009-0329) is published monthly except July and August by Professional Publications, Inc.—S. L. Davis, Pres.; P. S. Emery, Sec.: 1609 North west Blvd., Columbus, Ohio 43212. Second Class postage paid at Columbus, Ohio. Subscription Rates:One year SI8, two years $34, three years $45. 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Indexing:Articles in each issue of Ceramics Monthly are indexed in the Art Index. A 20-year subject index (1953-1972), covering Ceramics Monthly feature articles, Sugges tions and Questions columns, is available for $1.50, postpaid, from the Ceramics Monthly Book Department, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Additionally, each year’s arti cles are indexed in the December issue. Copies and Reprints:Microfiche, 16mm and 35mm microfilm copies, and xerographic re prints are available to subscribers from Uni versity Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Copies in micro fiche are also available from Bell & Howell, Micro Photo Division, Old Mansfield Road, Wooster, Ohio 44691. Back Issues: Back issues, when available, are $3 each, postpaid. Write for a list. Postmaster:Please send address changes to Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Copyright © 1986 Professional Publications, Inc. All rights reserved January 1986 3 4 C eramics Monthly Ceramics Monthly Volume 34, Number 1 January 1986 Feature Articles High Styles at the Whitney....................................... 24 12th Functional Ceramics Exhibition 26 Steven Donegan’s Clay Paintings............................. 28 Slip Casting: Studio Tool of the ’80s by Nancy LaPointe..................................................29 Portfolio: Directions by Jane Gustin.........................................................39 An Approach to Single Firing by Steven Hill.......................................................... 47 Cone 020-4 Overglazes by Gerald Rowan .................................................... 52 Departments Letters to the Editor...................................................... 7 Where to Show........................................................... 13 Questions.................................................................... 15 Itinerary...................................................................... 17 Suggestions................................................................. 19 Comment: In Search of Pottery Masters by Ersatz Soubriquet............................................... 21 News & Retrospect.................................................... 55 New Books.................................................................. 75 Classified Advertising............................................... 78 Index to Advertisers.................................................. 80 The Cover Wheel-thrown stoneware pitcher, 11 inches in height, with dipped and sprayed glazes, single fired to Cone 10 in a reducing atmosphere, by Steven Hill, Kansas City, Missouri. Fuel and labor savings are two ob vious arguments in favor of single firing, but Steven says, “The real value lies in the way it ties together the making and glazing processes, plus various influ ences it can have on one’s aesthetic concerns.” Many potters have avoided single firing mainly because of lack of experience with the process and insufficient time to develop reliable clays and glazes. Beginning on page 47, Steven Hill’s article presents a practical starting point for understanding the aesthetics, tech niques and theory behind the process. Photo: R. C. Nible. January 1986 5 6 Ceramics Monthly Letters November Comment Response I respect what you and your generation ularly excellent. I expect protest from lots of I would like to remind Lili Krakowski have done to bring us where we are today, folks who won’t be comfortable with Lili’s (“Taking Care of Reality”) that water seeks Ms. Krakowski, but now that we are here, useful comments. It’s also terrific to see an its own level. I have no complaint with a set free the reins and let a new generation article on computers that begins to put them skilled craftsperson augmenting income benefit from your hard work by using that where they belong—as potentially useful through another, more remunerative craft. It special vision and understanding which has tools, not dehumanizing, awful machines tak is important to recognize your own abilities long characterized creative thinkers. Let us ing over the world of art. “Bartering Your and if skill is your forte then by all means, build a living legacy of people who value, Work” was also excellent. Ross Murphy really use it. nurture, and exploit an intellectual ability understands the joy of bartering. Where Lili Krakowski and I part com your generation could only bring out on Karolyn Ehrenpreis pany is in her implication that all craftspeo weekends. Milford, N.H. ple are limited to skill as a primary attribute. Curtis Benzie Quite the opposite, I find most of my crafts Columbus, Ohio Don’t let the anti-how-to potters know that acquaintances to be primarily creative think November carries three excellent articles to ers and only secondarily skilled workers. Re I appreciate Lili Krakowski’s article. Her come under the process classification. They alizing that in our society creative thinkers words go to the heart of the dilemma I face cover well some of the how-to problems that are valued and paid more than skilled work every day. After graduation from art school face every potter. For certainly, financial ers, it would seem logical, as well as desir I worked four years teaching pottery and matters are top priorities. able, for those craftspeople in need of money working part- and full-time jobs to supple The best is probably “Bartering Your Work” to use their primary attribute, creative think ment my income. I found these jobs halted followed closely by “Think Before You Com ing, to provide their financial stability. my maturing process as a potter, but when pute” and ending well with Comment—of Perhaps my use of the term “creative we cannot put decent food on the table or which the last sentence is a beauty. thinker” needs some further explanation. I pay the bills, a job is necessary. I agree that Martha Hodges am considering this term as the type of cog art schools should include practical training Williamsport, Pa. nitive activity that allows for the consider in their curricula. I encourage anyone with ation and coordination of abstract bits of in a passion for potting to go for it! Few profes Potters, Zombies and Others formation into a logical, usable format, e.g., sions can offer the satisfaction of bringing I would like to comment on the two letters making an undefined lump of clay into a beauty and meaning into the lives of others. (November CM) in response to my article functioning pitcher. Obviously, that’s not the David Beumee of the above title. wide-eyed dreaming many people equate with Lafayette, Colo. Thomas Feyrer’s letter misses the point creativity, but the type of intelligence that utterly and shows a typical lack of under allows us to be programmers rather than November’s Comment by Lili Krakowski standing as to what the handcraft revival programmed. was sobering food for thought. Existence is movement was and still is about. To equate The idea of resolving one’s financial need itself a tenuous phenomenon and perhaps more the role of past generations of potters with at a level of accomplishment below one’s aes so for the potters who, without the luxury that of a proletarian drill-press operator shows thetic standards I find most confused. It seems of a university teaching job or other income, that his idea of what a potter’s life is like to presuppose an extremely narrow degree invest their hearts in their work and then the starts somewhere in the industrial world of of intelligence and I think belies an attitude “tidal waves of reality” or at least those of the 19th century, when a thrower was indeed more than a real situation. If none of