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Ceramics Monthly (ISSN 0009-0328) is pub­ lished monthly except July and August by Profes­ sional Publications, Inc., 1609 Northwest Blvd., Columbus, Ohio 43212. Second Class postage paid at Columbus, Ohio. Subscription Rates:One year $22, two years $40, three years $55. Add $10 per year for subscriptions outside the U.S.A. Change of Address:Please give us four weeks advance notice. Send the magazine address label as well as your new address to: Ceramics Monthly, Circulation Offices, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Contributors:Manuscripts, photographs, color separations, color transparencies (including 35mm slides), graphic illustrations, announce­ ments and news releases about ceramics are wel­ come and will be considered for publication. Mail submissions to Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. We also accept unillustrated materials faxed to (614) 488-4561. Writing and Photographic Guidelines:A book­ let describing standards and procedures for sub­ mitting materials is available upon request. Indexing:An index of each year’s articles appears in the December issue. Additionally, Ceramics Monthly articles are indexed in the Art Index. Printed, on-line and CD-ROM (computer) in­ dexing is available through Wilsonline, 950 University Ave., Bronx, New York 10452; and from Information Access Co., 362 Lakeside Dr., Forest City, California 94404. These services are available through your local library. A 20-year subject index (1953-1972), covering Ceramics Monthly feature articles, and the Suggestions and Questions columns, is available for $1.50, post­ paid, from the Ceramics Monthly Book Depart­ ment, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Copies and Reprints:Microfiche, 16mm and 35mm microfilm copies, and xerographic re­ prints are available to subscribers from Univer­ sity Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Back Issues:When available, back issues are $4 each, postpaid. Write for a list. Postmaster:Please send address changes to Ce­ ramics Monthly, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212. Form 3579 requested. Copyright © 1992 Professional Publications, Inc. All rights reserved

2 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 3 4 CERAMICS MONTHLY Volume 40, Number 9 • November 1992

Feature Articles Alev SiesbyeThe secret of this European Alev Siesbye ...... 30 potter’s coil-built stoneware bowls is “in keeping her art as direct as possible, in not Functional Ceramics: Renewed Commitment by Phyllis Blair Clark...... 32 [going] beyond what their shapes and sizes 18th-and 19th-Century American Ware ...... 34 dictate, in knowing when to stop”; page 30. Emerging Talent ...... 38 Valdez Flashfiring A series of accidents Part 1 (combined with interest in exploring the The Clay War by Barry Targan ...... 44 postfiring potential of reheating surfaces with a propane torch) led to a new method A Russian Night by Rafael Saifulin ...... 49 for controlling copper matt finishes; learn how, beginning on page 52. Ail Environmentally Safe Spray Booth by Bill Campbell ...... 51 Valdez Flashfiring by John Ramer Sherrill...... 52 The Clay WarThough historical fiction, this story captures the essence of potters the Portfolio: world over who find emotional as well as Jerry Rothman by Elaine Levin ...... 55 economic sustenance in devoting their lives to working with clay; page 44. Up Front U.S. Pottery Olympics...... 10 Discoveries at Burghley House...... 10 Table Topics...... 12 Third California Clay Competition ...... 12 Organic Abstractions...... 14 Michael Paul Wilcox...... 14 Hungarian Folk Pottery...... 14 Dutch Abstract Sculpture Show...... 14 Gene Anderson...... 16 A Russian Night Clay forms are the “can­ Kaj Franck...... 16 vas” for the brooding, introspective, some­ Sandi Rolfe...... 18 times wistful underglaze drawings of Rafael Elizabeth Raeburn ...... 18 Saifulin, an artist living in a small town near Saint Petersburg; page 49. Clay in Motion...... 20 Lee Stoliar...... 20 Emerging TalentArtists at least five years Obituaries...... 20 removed from school are recognized in this session at the National Council on Educa­ tion for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) annual conference; see works by the 1992 partici­ Departments pants beginning on page 38. Letters ...... 8 Group Ceramics Exhibitions ...... 70 Ceramics in Multimedia Exhibitions ...... 72 New Books ...... 24 An Environmentally Safe Spray Booth Fairs, Festivals and Sales ...... 76 “Scrubbing” the exhaust air with water Call for Entries Workshops ...... 76 drastically reduces particulate emissions; an International Exhibitions ...... 64 International Events ...... 78 explanation of the action and a sketch of the National Exhibitions ...... 64 Video ...... 80 booth appear on page 51. Regional Exhibitions ...... 66 Fairs, Festivals and Sales ...... 66 Questions ...... 82 The cover Never one to shy away from Classified Advertising ...... 84 controversial subjects, California artist Jerry Suggestions ...... 68 Rothman is currently working on a timely Calendar Comment: series of sculptures that point out American Conferences ...... 70 Sex, Art and Rock ’n Roll social and political follies; see the portfolio International Conferences ...... 70 by Paula Gustafion ...... 86 beginning on page 55. Solo Exhibitions ...... 70 Index to Advertisers ...... 88

November 1992 5

Letters properties valued by Yanagi, and refutes course, there’s always another way, but theirs Yanagi’s conclusion that the greatest beauty has worked for many of us; therefore, we can can only be found in folk craft, in the crudestsay, “We did this ourselves.” sense of those produced cheaply and in quan­ Kathy Koop, New Wilmington, Pa. Gossip Column! tity by a community of craftsmen. Tsuji­ Ceramics Monthly continues to be interest­mura’s products are delightful, spectacular Carlton Ball Legacy ing, informative and full of gorgeous pot and varied—results achieved by few potters, a It was with great sorrow that I read of pinups. But my favorite parts are the Letters, fact attested to even by the pages of CM. the passing of Carlton Ball. I studied with Classifieds and Comment columns. Now if Bernard O’Reilly, Worcester, Mass. Carlton at the University of Southern Cali­ CM would just run a gossip column.... fornia in 1960-61. He seemed a shy man Bette Drake, Cleveland Grand Gesture until you asked him a question. It was then I was thinking about the hurricanes, the you realized how much he knew about ce­ Refuting Yanagi debris and the needs of the people in Florida,ramics. His knowledge was so extensive we There’s substantial irony in Barry Lancet’s Louisiana and Hawaii. It occurred to me that used to joke that he had probably forgotten utilization of a seemingly supportive quote in this upcoming Year of American Craft more about ceramics than most potters from Soetsu Yanagi’s The Unknown Crafts­ there might be a significant way to tie into would ever know. I think most potters across man in the article “Shiro Tsujimura” {Ceram­the ultimate usefulness and place for artisans the country are unknowingly using some of ics Monthly, JunelJuly/August 1992). Yanagi while helping out at the same time. I had a his glazes. esteemed the accidental product of humble vision of potters getting together and con­ Several years ago my wife and I visited processes and lowly potters, rather than the structing temporary wood-burning kilns, Carlton and Mary Ann at their homelstudio productions of the artist-craftsman. In fact, using the debris that will surely overfill area in Tacoma. As he showed us around their he clearly stated that the copying of “sponta­landfills to fire basic utilitarian pots and property, he was excitedly talking about the neous irregularities is fatal,” and that the dishes for these people who have lost every­ new chamber kiln he was going to build here “willful sorts of deformation...found in Japa­thing. This would foster public awareness of and the new gallery he was going to build nese pots above all others...are our specializedwhat craftsmanship is all about, as well as there; meanwhile, a manuscript for a book kind of ugliness, all in the pursuit of miscon­introduce and probably influence new gen­ was in process in the living room. Later, my ceived beauty” (The Unknown Craftsman, erations in the art of ceramics. I know there wife Casey said to me, “Carlton doesn’t page 195). would be some problems with the smoke, butknow he’s 77 years old.” Tsujimura clearly plays upon both in­ the overcrowded landfill and need for non­ I casually mentioned to him on that visit tentional alteration for asymmetry and disposable food containers, plates, etc., mightthat I had been struggling with some saggar spontaneous but deliberately introduced well outweigh that. It would be a grand firing problems. Right off the top of his head irregularities achieved through the firing Samaritan gesture that could have far-reach- he rattled off several techniques I should try. processes. These, however, were not the goalsing benefits on countless levels. Are there anyMy problem was solved! of Yanagi’s “unknown craftsmen,” who good implementers out there? In 1989, the city of Tacoma gave him a labored anonymously, repetitively producing Sandra Tesar, Lacey’s Spring, Ala. special retrospective show and the governor the same objects for a lifetime. The properties proclaimed “F. Carlton Ball Day.” Two other valued by Yanagi were a result of the rude What a View! former students (Rollie Younger and Fred conditions in the workplace due to the initial Ceramics Monthly is one window to view Olsen) and I made the trip to Washington to intent of the production of utensils for ordi­ what is happening in clay. Sometimes it’s a surprise him at the show, where we spoke nary and humble use. The beauty of the nice view; sometimes it’s a hurricane; some­ about our days under his tutelage and his utensils produced in this fashion is to be times it affects me; sometimes it doesn’t. Butgreat influence as a master potter. Even “found” later by others who may adapt the there is always something to see. though his health was faltering, he invited us utensils for a purpose entirely different from Millie St. John, Glens Falls, N.Y. to his home for a visit the next day. that intended by the potter (as was the case I originally went to U.S.C. to study be­ with many Korean ceramics subsequently Soldner Approved cause most of the successful L.A. potters had treasured by the Japanese for their beauty and For all the people who have been fortu­ studied there. Carlton was truly a wonderful adaptability for the tea ceremony). nate enough to study with Paul Soldner, his man with a great heart and vast knowledge, It is not clear that Yanagi fully appreciatedarticle “Without Laws” (CM, May 1992) which he enthusiastically shared with thou­ the dilemma here. The intent of the potters needs no explanation, nor do we need to sands of students across the country. A part was not at all in the examples Yanagi valued, come to his defense. of him lives on through his students. I loved but in regular, sturdy works. The best ex­ However, in answer to the letters by Jack that man! amples chosen by Yanagi, in his own words, Troy and Aaron Benson (CM, September Frank Matranga, Manhattan Beach, Calif. would have been laughed at by the very 1992), I want to share the thoughts of Kan- craftsmen who produced them (The Un­ jiro Kawai (1890-1966), who joined his two September Cover known Craftsman, page 193). Certainly they friends Shoji Hamada and Soetsu Yanagi to About the cover and portfolio in the would have avoided the very properties form the mingei movement in Japan. He September 1992 issue: I wonder if CM esteemed by Yanagi if their available produc­states in the book We Do Not Walk Alone: “Imisread that expression, and thought it said, tion methods allowed them to do so. More­ never try to impose my own techniques or “Is it art, or is it crap?” over, it is apparent, at least in Tsujimura’s designs on young people, but I encourage Claude Conover, Cleveland works, that “intention” does not destroy the them to develop their own style. I cannot teach anyone. That would be too presumptu­Students Discuss Ono Performance Share your thoughts with other readers. All letters ous. Everyone already has the ability to create The following are letters from several of must be signed, but names will be withheld on beautiful things. My only method of criti­ my pottery students at North High School. request. Mail to The Editor, Ceramics Monthly, cism is to praise the pieces I consider good.”After reading “Yoko Ono’s Promise Piece” Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212; or fax to Both Soldner and Kawai share a similar [JunelJuly!August 1992], these students (614) 488-4561. approach to “teaching” and “criticism.” Of Please turn to page 62

8 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 9 Up Front

U.S. Pottery Olympics There weren’t any gymnasts or track stars present, but competitors in the first annual U.S. Pottery Olympics managed to wow the crowd with their own amazing feats at the Cambridge (Wisconsin) Pottery Festival last summer. Patterned after other competi­ tions held in Denmark, Italy and Sweden, this olympic challenge included four events: throwing the tallest cylinder with 5 kilos (approxi­ mately \¾ pounds) of clay; throw­ ing the widest platter with 6 kilos (approximately 2½ pounds) of clay; throwing the largest sphere with 10 kilos (approximately 3¾ pounds) of clay; and throwing three pots in 25 minutes, which were then judged on Given 10 kilos (about 3¾ pounds) of clay to work with, five finalists competed in the sphere-throwing aesthetics—form, function and contest; Mark Slick took top honors with a form that measured about 19 inches in diameter. mastery of the craft. In the cylinder, platter and sphere contests, one point was Second place went to Mark Slick of Andover, Minnesota, awarded for each millimeter of measurement. Bruce Odell of who won both the aesthetic division as well as the sphere com­ Ruston, Louisiana, won both the cylinder and platter events petition when the diameter of his piece was measured at 486 with works measuring 670 millimeters (approximately 26 millimeters (approximately 19 inches). Mark Skudlarek, Cam­ inches) high and 720 millimeters (approximately 28 inches) bridge, Wisconsin, placed third; E. J. Windholtz, Ruston, wide, respectively, giving him the highest cumulative point total Louisiana, placed fourth; and Chris Matti, Madison, Wisconsin, overall. Capturing first place in the Pottery Olympics earned placed fifth. Odell the chance to compete in the World Pottery Competition While the majority of the competitors were from the United in Faenza, Italy. States, the Cambridge Olympics did have international represen­ tation, with Alfred Herring (see his profile in the November 1991 CM) flying in from LaBourne, France, to compete; and Antje Zielinsky coming from Saint Jacobs, Ontario. Herring finished in eighth place and Zielinsky finished 23rd. Along with the Olympics, the two-day festival featured a slide lecture by Louis Katz on Thailand’s folk pottery (see his article on the same topic in the September 1991 CM), demonstrations and an antiques auction. “Closing ceremonies” included the Potters’ Ball, with entertainment by The Crock, a band made up of—who else?—potters and their friends. Discoveries at Burghley House Burghley House in Stamford, England, recently celebrated a decade of research and inventory with the exhibition “Ten Years of Discoveries at Burghley.” Widely known for its collections of artworks, Burghley House was built by William Cecil, the first Lord Burghley (1520-98), who was Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I. The collections were assembled over the centuries as members of the family indulged their interests in various art forms; however, as is often the case, these acquisitions were not always fully appreciated by succeeding generations. Continued

Winning the cylinder and platter events, Bruce Odell was You are invited to send news and photos about people, places or events of awarded first place in the U.S. Pottery Olympics, earning him interest. We will be pleased to consider them for publication in this the chance to compete in the World Pottery Competition in column. Mail submissions to Up Front, Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, Faenza, Italy. Columbus, Ohio 43212.

10 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 11 Up Front

Robert McWilliams’ glazed porcelain bottle, tureen and serving dishes; at Mindscape Gallery in Evanston, Illinois.

Mindscape codirector Deborah Farber-Isaacson. “Its an experi­ ence that’s even better when we share it with friends and family across the table.” Third California Clay Competition The third “California Clay Competition,” a juried annual exhibition at the Artery (home of the Artists’ Cooperative of Davis) in conjunction with the “California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Art,” featured works by 30 artists. Juror Ruth Rippon (professor emeritus, California State Univer­ sity, Sacramento) selected from 200 slide entries. Continued

Japanese porcelain, Kakiemon-style wrestlers, circa 1670-85, documented in a 1688 inventory as “Two China Boyes Wrestling,” 12 inches in height; “found” at the Burghley House, Stamford, England, being used as a doorstop.

Throughout the past ten years, artworks at Burghley House have been discovered in unusual locations—buried under sawdust, wrapped in newspaper, even, as in the case of the porcelain Kakiemon-style pair of wrestlers, being used as a doorstop! Until this latter piece was found in 1982 and identi­ fied as “Two China Boyes Wrestling,” it was generally thought that most of Burghley’s Oriental porcelain had been dispersed in the 19th century. This find led to the discovery that most of the 17th-century Oriental porcelain had survived. A 1688 inventory assisted in the identification of the porce­ lain figure; it was drawn up by Culpepper Tanner, secretary to the fifth Earl of Exeter, and is the earliest known inventory of Japanese porcelain in the West. This inventory proved to be invaluable once again when thousands of Italianate glazed tiles were found in unused work­ shops. From the inventory, researchers discovered that these came from the “Tile roome” and were part of an ambitious decorating program in the 17th century. Table Topics Modern interpretations of items familiar to every Idtchen and dining room were the focus of “Table Topics,” a multimedia invitational on view recently at Mindscape Gallery in Evanston, Illinois. The exhibition supported the frequently stated view that much utilitarian work is art that happens to reside on a table, rather than on a pedestal or within a frame. Diane Van Der Zanden’s “Capital Man,” 33 inches in height, “There is a unique pleasure to be found in using art, in stoneware with crushed glass, fired to Cone 3 in reduction, interacting with it and incorporating it into our lives,” explained $2800; at the Artery in Davis, California.

12 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 13 Up Front Wilcox’s sculptures are not simply superficial copies. Just like the real thing, each is assembled from constituent parts—all handbuilt from clay without the use of molds. “No Preservatives Four artists received $ 100 cash awards: Wan-Yi Lin, Sacra­ Added,” a replica of an electric potter’s wheel, required 160 mento; Andrew Martin, Sacramento; Jan Presley, Los Altos; and separate ceramic pieces. Don Santos, Burlingame. Santos was also the recipient of the Alpha Award—an additional $100 donated by Alpha Ceramics Hungarian Folk Pottery of Sacramento. “Magyar Keramica” (Hungarian Ceramics), a selection of works by 12 Hungarian folk potters, was on view through October 23 Organic Abstractions at Ceramica Gallery in New York City. The exhibition was Abstract sculpture by Florida artists Diane Dawes and Michaela arranged by Aid to Artisans (ATA), a nonprofit organization DiCosola was exhibited recently at the University of Miami’s dedicated to promoting craft traditions while creating employ­ New Gallery. Both artists refer to and derive inspiration from ment opportunities for disadvantaged artisans worldwide. organic forms and materials. ATA spent two years researching the needs of Hungarian Dawes combines clay with plaster and cement to create craftspeople. “Their problems are not technical but political and works that reflect her interest in the processes of growth, living, economic, hence our job is to help with export, and to teach them to respond to free market requirements.” All the potters featured in the New York show are strongly interested in tradition. They often use the Hungarian word taplalkozik, which translates as nourishment but can also mean the flow of tributaries into a river, to explain the incorporation of traditional styles and methods in their creative work. As full-time potters, they see their work as truly integral to their lives; often their potteries are run as family businesses, with spouses, children or parents involved.

Michaela DiCosola’s “Our Chosen Journey,” 40 inches in length, low-fire clay and glazes on a steel base; at the University of Miami’s New Gallery. transformation and deterioration, often presenting contrasting concepts within the same form. For example, the surface of a form rising sharply into space to suggest growth may be heavily textured to indicate deterioration. In turn, DiCosola draws upon the shapes of pods, insects and other biological forms for her visual language. But like nature’s originals, her abstracted images can sometimes be both elegant and unsettling. Michael Paul Wilcox Full-scale ceramic replicas of common machines by Indiana artist Michael Paul Wilcox were among the works featured in a recent realism exhibition at the Clara Kott von Storch Gallery of Farrington-Keith Creative Arts Center in Dexter, Michigan.

Busi Laps’ puzzle jug, approximately 10 inches in height, glazed earthenware; at Ceramica Gallery in New York City.

Other versions of “Magyar Keramica” will open at the Clay Angel galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Ashland, Oregon, on November 27. Dutch Abstract Sculpture Show

Michael Paul Wilcox’s “No Preservatives Added,” 27 inches in Sculpture by Dutch ceramists Manja Hazenberg, Gera van der height, assembled from about 160 handbuilt ceramic pieces; Leun, Gerda Maas and Beatrijs van Rheeden was featured at Clara Kott von Storch Gallery, Dexter, Michigan. recently in “Abstract Compositions in Clay VI” at Galerie

14 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 15 Up Front inch-diameter limit imposed by the interior of his electric kiln. His technique involves rolling out huge slabs of clay, plan­ ning a glaze painting, then cutting and breaking the slab into Amphora in Oosterbeek, Netherlands. In creating their work, all smaller, kiln-sized pieces. Next comes the layering of under- four are often influenced by historic and modern architecture, glazes, glazes and overglazes, and multiple firings. and sometimes also by nature. Shown from the exhibition is a Gera van der Leun fountain Kaj Franck composed of blocklike sections with slightly curved surfaces The first retrospective in the United States of works by Finnish stacked one on the other in igloo fashion. Because light and designer Kaj Franck (1911-1989) was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City through October 12. Featured in the show were approximately 200 one-of-a-kind and mass- produced ceramic, glass and plastic tableware pieces designed between the late 1940s and 1980s. Often called the “conscience of Finnish design,” Franck influenced many generations of young product designers through his work, writings and 29-year teaching career. He “believed that mass-produced utility ware must first and foremost serve the needs of the user,” noted exhibition organizer Christopher Mount in Gera van der Leun fountain; installed in the garden of Galerie Amphora, Oosterbeek, Netherlands. the accompanying catalog. “His unusual definition of beauty— mirroring are important aspects of her work, glaze colors are necessary, functional, justified, right’—corresponds to his belief selected to harmonize with the natural surroundings. that a certain truth is embodied in an object that simply and elegantly fulfills its purpose. Gene Anderson “To achieve what he called an optimal object,’ Franck used a Large-scale “mosaic” murals by Virginia artist Gene Anderson vocabulary of basic geometric forms: circles, squares, cylinders were exhibited recently at 112 Greene Street in New York City. and rectangles. Like many modernists, including those at the Anderson developed his mural style in part to overcome the 25- Bauhaus in Germany, Franck understood these shapes as the

Gene Anderson in his Palmyra, Virginia, studio; on the wall is “Living with Paradox & Confusion,” 12 feet in length.

16 CERAMICS MONTHLY

Up Front Rolfe s work came from her whippets, which most days can be found lounging on a sofa in her studio. Rolfe s sculpture was selected from a field of 715 entries submitted by 319 artists from 43 states, the District of Colum­ bia and Canada. The accepted works were exhibited at the Foyer Gallery at Century II Civic Center, then at the Sunflower Cluster All Breed Dog Shows at the Kansas Coliseum, Wichita. The Best of Show winner was then donated to the Dog Museum, a national museum dedicated to the preservation of art and literature relating to dogs, in Saint Louis. Elizabeth Raeburn Raku vessels by British potter Elizabeth Raeburn were exhibited recently at Galerie Besson in London. Raeburn began a career in ceramics in 1973, after having worked in music and book publishing, then as a teacher. While studying at Harrow School of Art, she spent a brief but influential time as a production worker at David Leach’s studio. By 1975, she had moved to Somerset, establishing a pottery with Rodney Lawrence. “Raku has been for some time her chosen medium, with all the hazards that apparently simple process entails,” commented

1 Kaj Franck “Kilta Salt and Pepper,” 2 /2 inches in height, glazed earthenware, produced between 1949 and 1952. most logical and immediate solutions to a variety of design problems. He also saw in them a certain universal truth and purity.” His “Kilta” series, mix-and-match dinnerware produced between 1950 and 1975, was the first full set of oven-to-table ware to be manufactured; it was also the first to be sold by the individual piece, thus allowing consumers to purchase only what they needed or could afford. “Franck synthesized utility and aesthetics with the utmost refinement, creating products that continue to look as contem­ porary today as they did when they were first introduced,” Mount concluded. “The timeless quality of his work illustrates one of the most important tenets of modernism: that an empha­ sis on functionalism, integrity of materials and purity of form can produce a product whose value outlasts the ephemeral superficialities of style.” Sandi Rolfe “All My Children,” a whiteware sculpture by Portland, Oregon, artist Sandi Rolfe, won the Best of Show award at the 1992 “Art Show at the Dog Show” in Wichita, Kansas. Inspiration for

Sandi Rolfe’s “All My Children,” approximately 18 inches in length, handbuilt whiteware, fired to Cone 02, brushed with commercial nonfired stains; Best of Show award winner in the Elizabeth Raeburn vase, approximately 13 inches in height, sixth annual “Art Show at the Dog Show” in Wichita, Kansas. slab built, blue glazed, raku fired; at Galerie Besson, London.

18 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 19 Up Front The boxes help to define the physical boundaries set by Stoliar. Within these limitations, though, her “manner of working is highly intuitive. Spontaneous decisions spark trains Michael Casson, who “had the pleasure of enrolling Elizabeth of thought, and each piece leads into the next. The thematic Raeburn on the Harrow course in 1973. content of a series is incrementally revealed.” “This simplicity is of course deceptive and it needs keen One of her latest series—“Lost and Found”—consists of powers of selection to turn away from the sometimes spectacular single-panel sculptures depicting images of full and empty but inappropriate ‘happenings’ inherent in raku. vessels or hands, keys, watches, fruit and kitchen utensils. “She is always experimenting, now with colored clays and “Here,” she says, “a nutcracker is an instrument of revelation, subtle new surfaces. WTiat seems perennial in her work is the feeling of upward growth, of lift-off, imminent flight,” Casson concluded. Clay in Motion A juried exhibition featuring functional works that focus on gestural form—that off-balance, dancelike asymmetry that alludes to the human form or the human condition—was presented recently at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia. Included in “Clay in Motion” were wheel-thrown and altered pots, plus assembled vessels that varied from the common vertical axis. Exhibiting artists were Robert Bede Clark, Saint Petersburg, Florida; Michelle Coakes, Bowling Green, Kentuclcy; Malcolm Davis, Washington, D.C.; Jared Jaffe, Philadelphia; Woody

Lee Stoliar with “Pocket Watch,” 10¾ inches in height, handbuilt terra cotta with wood case; at Habatat/Shaw Gallery, Farmington Hills, Michigan.

and a milkweed pod presents loss as an inevitable part of a regenerative cycle.” Shown with the artist is “Pocket Watch,” one of the 14 works from the “Lost and Found” series. Obituaries Linn Phelan (1906-1992), a functional potter who operated Linnwood Pottery in Almond, New York, from 1950 until the fall of 1991, died in May. In addition to his studio career, Phelan was also a ceramics educator. He was invited by Aileen Vanderbilt Webb to be part of the original faculty at the newly formed School for American Craftsmen when it was established Lisa Stinson teapot, 9 inches in height, wood fired; at the Clay at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and moved with the Studio in Philadelphia. school to Alfred, New York, when it became part of the liberal arts department at Alfred University. But when the school Hughes, Wading River, New York; Jay LaCouture, Newport, moved again (to the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1950), Rhode Island; Brad Schwieger, Athens, Ohio; and Lisa Stinson, he accepted a position at Alfred-Almond Central School and Collinsville, Connecticut. taught art there until his retirement in 1967. Then for five years following retirement, he served as a lecturer in art education at Lee Stoliar New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Phelan An exhibition of high-relief sculpture in terra cotta by New York also was active in various art organizations, serving as an officer City artist Lee Stoliar was on view recently at Habatat/Shaw for the New York State Art Teachers Association, for York State Gallery in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Through her work, Craftsmen, for the Allegheny Arts Association and for the Stoliar explores states of the human psyche, presenting, she says, Almond Historical Society. “images of female figures intensely engaged in symbolic and Polia Pillin (1901—1992), a Los Angeles artist who worked metaphoric activities.” both in clay and on canvas, died in August. Born in Poland into Working in series, Stoliar begins each relief by packing a 2- a crafts family, Pillin immigrated to the U.S. in 1924. Though inch-deep wooden box with terra cotta. “I draw loosely on the trained as a painter, she was captivated by Oriental pottery and surface, then carve in and build up, shaving the forms into tight taught herself how to work with clay and glazes. By 1943, she volumes with ribbon and loop tools,” she explains. (For a had begun producing traditional vessel forms decorated with detailed explanation of the construction of a larger-than-life glaze paintings. About Pillin’s pottery, writer Henry Miller once relief, see her portfolio “High Relief,” which appeared in the said: “For me the charm and value of the Pillin ceramics consist December 1987 issue of Ceramics Monthly?) The boxes, which of this—in addition to getting a useful object we often get a frame all of her sculptures, come from “an intensive childhood painting or a theme of a possible one. We can sit and dream over involvement with the domestic microcosm of my dollhouse.” each object as primitive people do.”

20 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 21

New Books explanation of this arrangement by Dutch artist/author Fons De Vogelaere. Part II is a chronological catalog, with technical data and black-and-white detail Carmen Dionyse images of the works presented in Part I. 261 My Art, My Universe pages, including biographical notes, exhibi­ Lavishly illustrated, this monograph on tion list and selected bibliography. 225 color Belgian ceramist Carmen Dionyse begins plates, 150 black-and-white photographs. with an essay by Swiss art historian Frank $125 (includes shipping). Diofons-Lannoo, Nievergelt that places her work in both aes­ Duijhuisstraat 126, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. thetic and cultural context: “Carmen Dionyse, whose sculptures en­ Catalina Tile of the Magic Isle compass Man, his earthbound existence and by Lee Rosenthal the transitoriness of all earthly things, uses When chewing-gum magnate William materials in the most Wrigley Jr. purchased the island of Santa extreme way. Just as Catalina in 1919, he envisioned a vacation Edward Kienholz paradise, “a refuge from worry and work for employs what is worn the rich and poor.” To make the venture out and discarded commercially viable, he not only developed from the rubbish tourist accommodations and attractions, but dump to point out also looked into establishing several island social problems, her industries. When clay from the golf course work unites shape and area proved to have the plasticity and tensile the primordial mate­ strength necessary for brick and tile, “another rial, earth, to make a central statement about source of Catalina commerce was born.” human nature as such. Thus, they both create This nicely illustrated history traces the a marked tension verging on the sinister; theyestablishment and growth of the respected take everyday aspects and turn them into but short-lived Catalina Clay Products— something significant, into their extraordi­ from the early production of brick and floor nary works of art. tiles, through the introduction of colorful “While concentrating on the formal de­ dinnerware and the decorative tile used in the velopment of her works, she also studies the construction of many of the island’s homes magical-mythical cults and death rites of and businesses, including the circular Casino widely differing cultures and religions, an that is usually featured in tourist literature aspect that also finds its way into her an. Theand postcards today. figures that she shapes come, for example, “Everyday objects made with tile are re­ from the Bible, from Freemason literature, garded as among the most valuable items from the ancient Greek myths and from produced by the plant, Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses.’ The aspects...which and the most coveted she integrates into her work manifest them­ are the Catalina ta­ selves in the expression of the face, in the bles.” Decoration on posture of the body, in the type of material table tile was either and the color. silk screened or hand “In a godless age,” Nievergelt concludes, “painted,” following “her sculptures are an attempt to interpret the an outline “applied by mysteries of being through the rediscovery of a traditional method mythology. The truth about life and death known as ‘pouncing.’ A pattern was created contained in the myths is expressed in these by punching tiny holes into a parchmentlike works. Through them we encounter an artist material placed on damp tile. A cloth was who knows herself [to be] sheltered by mythsdipped into a dry mineral oxide, which was and rites—even though there remains an then dabbed on the holes. The oxide sifted ultimate loneliness. Beyond this, questions through the holes onto the clay, and the glazer concerning an individual’s life, failure, lone­ then filled in between the lines,” using sy­ liness, illness, death, but also future salvation,ringes to apply glazes within the “dead lines.” are evoked and personally interpreted.” Although its decorated tilework was ex­ In addition to Nievergelt’s essay, Part I tremely popular in the 1920s, the decline in includes a fold-out chart of the names of 167 sales during the Depression forced the Santa works arranged by theme (nature roots, shel­Catalina Island Company to negotiate a ter, seclusion, enlightenment, revelation, to­ buyout in 1937 with Gladding, McBean and ken and talisman, initiation, togetherness, Company on the mainland. For two years, authority, affliction, slumber and death, res­ Gladding, McBean continued to produce urrection, metamorphosis, and flight) in or­ Catalina dinnerware at its facility in Glen­ ganic growth order as a “tree of life,” plus andale, but the production of decorated tile

24 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 25 New Books produce them, and potters look back fondly to the days when the pottery was actually used in the home. ended when the island plant closed. 96 pages, “True utility is virtually nonexistent to­ including appendixes describing how the tile day. At Acoma and Laguna, as elsewhere in was made and a brief history of ancient the native world, residents have opted for tilework, bibliography and index. 88 color metal and plastic functional wares. Native and 10 black-and-white photographs; 132 American pottery in general has taken on a line drawings of tile patterns. $15, softcover; new role as a work of art.... Price alone tends plus $3 shipping and handling. California to dictate against actually using a bowl; it residents add 7.5% sales tax. Tile Heritage might break, and a substantial investment Foundation, Post Office Box1850, Healdsburg, would be lost. But an interesting return to a California 95448. more serviceable ware is taking place at Acoma, Laguna and other pueblos today, where pot­ Acoma & Laguna Pottery ters are using in their own homes commer­ by Rick Dillingham with Melinda Elliott cially produced wares with handpainted For some 300 years, the pottery of Acomadesigns in traditional style. Easy to produce, and Laguna Pueblos in New Mexico changedinexpensive and durable, the new slip-cast only gradually in style and production tech­ pottery has brought an ancient tradition full niques. However, during the past few dec­ circle, so that pueblo-made pots are again ades, modern technology and economic being utilized in pueblo homes and religious demands have led to comparatively drastic contexts. changes in materials, processes and decora­ “The challenge facing 20th-century Acoma tion. The author of and Laguna potters is how to blend tradition this study of Acoma with the need for sales....Searching the past and Laguna wares, for ideas...may well satisfy artistic integrity past and present, esti­ and even provide ‘food for the soul.’ But a mates that “among the contemporary artist may...prefer to use tradi­ more than 375 pot­ tion only as a reference point while moving on ters working at Acoma to more experimental work. A further diffi­ today, most create culty may arise, though, as the artist attempts commercial pottery, to reconcile artistic freedom with the need to including slip-cast [forms], with commercial market the work. clay, decorated with commercial paints..., “Today most stylistic changes come about and almost all Acoma pottery is electric-kiln through individual decisions, and the old way fired.” That is not to say that the traditional of incorporating change by slow, gradual ways of gathering local clay, coil building, consensus is disappearing. Some traditional decorating with slips and dung firing are no potters at Acoma, motivated by economic longer utilized—just not as frequently as the concerns and heavy competition in the mar­ more cost-effective modern methods. ketplace, have recommended that the tribal In tracing the evolution of Acoma and government intervene to set standards for Laguna pottery, the author (himself a potter) pottery, requiring that pieces be labeled either discovered that “potters and their craft hold a‘ceramic’ (commercially produced) or ‘tradi­ respected place in contemporary pueblo soci­tional’ (made with old-style methods and ety and presumably did so in the past. The artmaterials).” 241 pages, including lists of pot­ of pottery making, while purely utilitarian on ters working at Acoma and Laguna in 1910 a certain level, was and is regarded as an and 1991, an appendix on signs of commer­ integral and even sacred part of daily life. cial origin in pottery, catalog of Acoma and Despite the changes that have engulfed the Laguna pottery in the Indian Arts Research pueblo world, there remains an underlying Center (School of American Research), bib­ world view that recognized a spiritual dimen­liography and index. 58 color and 76 black- sion to every phase of life, to all common and-white illustrations; 2 maps. $45, hard­ objects and everyday activities. Pottery pro­ cover; $24.95, softcover. School of American duced to serve even ordinary household func­Research Press, Post Office Box 2188, Santa Fe, tions therefore has a ceremonial or sacred New Mexico 87501; distributed by University significance, simply because it was made for of Washington Press, Post Office Box 50096, use in some life-supporting activity. Seattle, Washington 98145. “The old people of the pueblos say that water always tastes better out of an olla (pot­A Collector’s History of British tery water jar), but economics today do not Porcelain generally allow the luxury of using a pot in thisby John and Margaret Cushion manner. Selling pots to outsiders has in a Of interest to studio artists as well as sense alienated the pots from the people whocollectors, this overview of porcelain vessels

26 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 27 New Books contrast of dull and burnished gilding was The Victorian period (1837-1900) saw often used very effectively on expensive 19th-many advances in production techniques, century wares, where the design on the rims and the “Great Exhibitions” held in New and figures produced by British manufactur­ of plates had previously been etched with York, Paris, Vienna, Melbourne and other ers from the mid 18th century to the presentacid, leaving part of the design in relief In major cities “became shop windows for Brit­ includes descriptions of materials and tech­ consequence, the gilding in the slightly sunkenish products throughout the world. The most niques, as well as background information onareas remained matt in contrast to the bur­ spectacular, however, must have been the the various makers. For instance, contempo­ nished gilding on the slightly higher orna­ Great Exhibition of 1851, which was held in rary potters may be interested in exploring thementation.” Hyde Park in London. It was on this occasion decorative effects achieved with various gild­ Arranged chronologically, the text begins that...Queen Victoria was particularly im­ ing techniques: with information on the Pomona Potworks pressed by a fine dessert service produced by “The earliest form of gilding was com­ (circa 1744-1754), one of several short-lived Messrs. Minton..., incorporating figures of posed of gold powder or gold leaf, ground upearly factories where most attempts to pro­ Parian [and] dishes of bone china, lavishly in honey prior to be­ duce soft-paste porcelain landed on the wast­decorated in turquoise and gold... .The Queen ing painted onto the ers pile. In fact, the Worcester firm is “the purchased the service and later gave it to the glazed wares and then only English porcelain factory to have contin­Emperor of Austria; it is now on display in the fired at approximately ued with an unbroken history” from the mid Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna.” 600°C [111 2°F]. This 18th century to the present. Because it is intended as a collector’s guide, form of gilding, which “It was not until 1768 that an English most of the text is devoted to the collectible was very durable, was potter, William Cookworthy, established a wares of the 18th and 19th centuries that are soft in tone and could factory at Plymouth, Devon, for the manu­ likely to be found at auction or among dealers’ be applied in sufficient facture of a hard-paste porcelain, moving to stocks, but the final chapter on 20th-century depth to permit tool­ Bristol in 1770, where Richard Champion production features works by contemporary ing and chasing. A few early factories used was to continue the production until 1781, studio potters and independent porcelain unfired gold leaf, but this form of decorationwhen he sold the remaining years of his patentdecorators as well. 448 pages, including list of usually had a fairly short life and soon wore to a group of Staffordshire potters. When theantiques societies, glossary and index. 135 away. After firing, it was necessary to burnishpatent finally expired in 1796, other English color plates, 641 black-and-white illustra­ the gilding, which now had a dull metallic potters are now known to have produced tions. $69.50. Antique Collectors’ Club, Ltd., appearance, with a bloodstone or agate to various hybrid hard-paste porcelain bodies, Market Street Industrial Park, Wappingers Falls, bring about the admired brilliance....The which included china clay and china stone.” New York 12590.

28 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 29 Alev Siesbye

tion worker in the ceramic factories at inches), that is used as a salt cellar in her Hohr-Grenzhausen in Germany before kitchen attests to that. This tiny piece of returning to Turkey to work in the Art stoneware has the energy and vitality of Workshop of the Eczacibasi Ceramic a bowl many times its size. Factories. In 1963, she moved to Den­ “The artists secret is in keeping her mark to work for Royal Copenhagen, art as direct as possible, in not taking then established her own studio in 1969 the decor of these bowls beyond what to concentrate on producing the straight­ their shapes and sizes dictate, in know­ forward, simple bowls that have become ing when to stop....Often the decora­ her signature work. tion consists of no more than a fine line “One wonders how these bowls can or two of exposed stoneware at the top be at once so guileless and so sophisti­ of the bowl with perhaps a complemen­ Alev Siesbye at Galerie Besson in London. cated,” observed collector William Hull, tary color change at the rim. director emeritus of the Palmer Mu­ “When I look at Siesbye s work,” Hull A solo exhibition of stoneware bowls by seum of Art, Pennsylvania State Univer­ remarked, “I am minded of a passage Alev Siesbye was featured recently at sity. “The answer is in their classic quality. from D. H. Lawrence in his book Galerie Besson in London. Because she “The tensions of their profiles are Etruscan Places, where he explores the worked in Copenhagen for nearly 30 subtle, which becomes more and more evanescent quality of the nightingales years, she is often considered a Danish a virtue as they compare to the stridency song. He compares the words of great potter, though she now lives in Paris. of art in general today and the cacophony religions with its song and concludes Born in Turkey, Siesbye studied sculp­ of much of contemporary ceramic work that the bird is the winner because cit is ture at the Istanbul Academy of Fine in Europe and America. neither preaching nor teaching nor com­ Arts from 1956 to 1958, while also at­ “There is a monumental quality to manding nor urging; it is just singing.’ tending Flireyas Ceramic Workshop. Siesbyes work and it rests not in size. A “And there are Alev Siesbyes bowls. She then spent two years as a produc­ small bowl, less than 7 centimeters (2¾ And they are just singing.” ▲

Coil-built stoneware bowl, 8 inches in diameter, with resisted glaze decoration, fired in an electric kiln to Cone 9-10.

30 CERAMICS MONTHLY Above: Small bowl, 6V2 inches in diameter\ glazed stoneware, high fired in oxidation.

Left: Glaze-patterned bowl 10 inches in diameter, coil-built stoneware, fired to Cone 9-10, by Alev Siesbye, Paris. Prices for the bowls exhibited at Galerie Besson in London ranged from £1500 (at that time approximately US$2775) to £5000 (approximately US$9250).

November 1992 31 Functional Ceramics: Renewed Commitment by Phyllis Blair Clark

Seek out,share and learn from others in the local clay community; attend every workshop, lecture,demonstration and exhibition available; and enjoy every accomplishment.

What changes have taken place in this the annual “Functional Ceramics” show demonstration and exhibition available; world in the last couple of years! Maps at the Wayne Center for the Arts in and enjoy every accomplishment. are now outdated and there are new Wooster, Ohio, were asked to respond. Several respondents also noted the countries to welcome. What an exciting The participants came from diverse need to respect and learn from the old, time to be living. backgrounds. There were several full­ as well as to appreciate the new. A will­ This new freedom will create oppor­ time professional potters; others were ingness to learn from others, to accept tunities for artistic and technical ex­ full-time college professors or art school failures, to remember that every prob­ changes that have been difficult to teachers who devote the remainder of lem has solutions, to become your own arrange in the past. New markets await their time to pottery. Some were self- hardest critic and to create a rich, re­ us as well. Are we prepared to accept the taught or learned with the help of a warding life—that is the challenge. challenges required to meet these op­ friend. As I read their responses to the As Christopher Rumme (Leicester, portunities? It seems to me that we have posed questions, one premise became North Carolina) said, “Seek out the as­ to be very aware of our potential and apparent: One needs to be committed pects in shared and common heritages, that we need to continue to strengthen and to have a passion for this work. draw upon ancient traditions, while our ranks by encouraging younger British potter Michael Dodd said, looking toward the future.” people considering the possibilities of a “If you have a passion, follow it.” Everyone agreed that it is a long and career in clay. Robert Briscoe (Harris, Minnesota) challenging road, but if you really love Public awareness of daywork has de­ expressed similar feelings when he re­ daywork, then go for it! Their thoughts veloped over the past 30 years due in plied, “If functional pots call out to you, and suggestions should remain guide­ large part to the diligence of studio pot­ make them with passion.” lines for us all. Let us go forth into our ters. Pots are now becoming objects of The need to be true to ones self, to changing world with renewed commit­ joy because of the relationships devel­ really enjoy the work and the willing­ ment, joy and celebration. oped between the potter and the user. ness to become involved in a labor-in- But should we encourage or discourage tensive career are requisites for success. The author Committed to promoting young people interested in careers in the There were suggestions for how to “awareness of the pleasures of using hand­ field? If we encourage them, how should promote personal development within craftedpots ” Phyllis Blair Clark has orga­ we advise them to prepare for this life­ the field as well: seek out, share and nized the “Functional Ceramics” exhibi­ time commitment? These are the ques­ learn from others in the local clay com­ tions and workshops in Wooster; Ohio, for tions to which the 1992 participants in munity; attend every workshop, lecture, the past 19 years.

Oval dish, 16 inches in lengthy glazed porcelain , $75, by Polly Ann Martin, Worcester, Massachusetts.

32 CERAMICS MONTHLY Biscuitjar, 9 inches in height ash-glazed stoneware, wood fired. Earthenware jar, 11 inches in height, saggar fired, $135, $220, by Mike Dodd, Welrash, Cumbria, United Kingdom. by Brian Van Nostrand, Hacker Valley, West Virginia.

Left to right: “Tortoise Flower Brick, ” majolica-glazed earthenware, $800, by Walter Ostrom, Indian Harbour, Nova Scotia; wood-fired porcelain pitcher, $160, by Jack Troy, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania; ash-glazed stoneware teapot, $95, by Mike Dodd; lidded jar, salt-glazed stoneware, $300, by Les Miley, Evansville, Indiana; and clear- glazed redware teapot, $30, by Hal Pugh, Randleman, North Carolina.

November 1992 33 18th- and 19th-Century American Ware

A selection of 18th- and 19th-century documented examples have helped the ware jugs and crocks made at the Norton redware and stoneware vessels, drawn museums curators to establish more re­ Pottery, which was founded in Ben­ from the museums extensive American liable attribution plus identify various nington by Captain John Norton in ceramics collection, was presented re­ regional characteristics. 1785. The pottery soon grew from a cently at the Bennington Museum in The works selected for this exhibi­ small, family-run operation that made Bennington, Vermont. tion illustrated the forms of and decora­ redware pottery for local use to one of Over the years, initial attributions tive glaze effects used on redware the largest producers of utilitarian stone­ given to many of the redware pitchers, produced at potteries in Connecticut, ware in the Northeast. To chronicle the mugs, jars, plates and bowls in the col­ Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire firms 109-year history, the exhibition lection have been reevaluated. Examin­ and Vermont, as well as Pennsylvania included both standard items and out­ ing shards from various sites and and the Shenandoah Valley. standing examples of one-of-a-kind comparing documented works with un­ Also shown were salt-glazed stone­ decorated ware. ▲

Late-18th- or early-19th-century glazed redware jar, possibly by Peter Clark (1743-1826) of Braintree, Massachusetts, and Lyndeboro, New Hampshire.

34 CERAMICS MONTHLY Redware pitcher and mug, believed to have been made in eastern Massachusetts or Rhode Island in the late 18th or early 19th century.

November 1992 35 Cobalt-decorated stoneware water keg by J. & E. Norton, Bennington, Vermont, circa 1850-59. Such kegs were soldfor 35 ½# per gallon. This one was probably made for Stark House, a resort hotel once owned by Julius Norton in downtown Bennington. Reportedly, the museum s first director, John Spargo, purchased it from the lobby of Bennington s Putnam Hotel in the 1920s for $10.

36 CERAMICS MONTHLY 12-gallon cooler, stamped “In Vino Veritas”; given to Luman Norton salt-glazed cooler with cobalt decoration; “Calvin Park/ Norton in 1859, the year he began working for the pottery. 1864/Member from Woodford” stamped in rondel.

Norton stoneware crock, with cobalt lion by German-born Salt-glazed stoneware jar with cobalt decoration; shown decorator John Hilfinger, salt glazed, circa 1855-59. at Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont.

November 1992 37 As part of the National Council on Education for the Ce­ thodox balance and disproportionate scale of forms presented ramic Arts (NCECA) conference in Philadelphia last spring, by an ever-increasing urbanization of our landscape, such as five “emerging talents” showed slides of their works while industrial residue, towers, stacks, vents, etc. I combine this tallying about their inspiration, influences, concerns and goals. interest with my fascination [with] collections of objects, such Nominations for this annual presentation are made by NCECA as collections found on flea market tables, on curiosity shelves members. All nominees must be at least five years removed or at history museums. I am particularly interested in the from school. relationship these objects have in proximity with neighboring Mary Barringer has been a studio potter in Hartford, objects and the intangible meanings we ascribe to them. Connecticut, for 19 years. During the first ten years, she Together these forms serve as a rich and metaphorical vocabu­ made wheel-thrown functional ware, then gradually shifted lary of fragments that I manipulate to comment on the toward coil-built sculpture. “Underneath the changes my paradoxy and fragility of the human condition.” work has gone through run questions about contemplation For Matt Nolen, New York City, “function serves a dual and interaction, about what clay is and can do, and about purpose. It exists literally as utility and also as an idea. I structure and freedom,” Barringer observed. “I spiral around integrate the conceptual sense of function with the surfaces these questions, never exactly answering them, but examining that bear texts and imagery relating to social and political them from different perspectives. As I negotiate the border ideas. The results are vessels that comment on contemporary zone between pottery and sculpture, I try to speak both of values.” For example, the forms for the “Apothecary Series” simple acts—to contain, to share, to hide, then reveal—and were inspired by 16th-century Italian albarellos. “This refer­ of the complex experiences these acts embody.” ence to function and its attendant associations support the An assistant professor at Winthrop College in Rock Hill, conceptual thrust of the imagery, which is related to contem­ South Carolina, Jim Connell combines wheel throwing, pad­ porary issues of healing and medicine, and the attitudes that dling and carving/faceting techniques to “produce a second­ underlie and empower those issues.” ary three-dimensional surface on the primary form. I enjoy Lee Rexrode, assistant professor at Edinboro University of this interplay and continually strive to excite forms with this Pennsylvania, is interested in the ability of pots “to contain duality of three-dimensional design.” Connell then relies on and be defined by their structure. The walls of a pot are “glazes, reduction and flame to play with, dance with and relatively thin, dividing inside from outside. This thin wall or accent each pot.” skin of clay has interested me for several years. I start with a Mitchell Messina, assistant professor at Nazareth College carefully thrown pot, then alter it. I often dimple this mem­ of Rochester, New York, focuses on “the association of parts brane to give gesture to the form and the space it contains. In to make unified and balanced sculpture.” Working with “clay addition to visual appearance, tactile qualities of texture, translations of objects,” he “attempts to recapture the unor­ weight and balance are important.” ▲

38 CERAMICS MONTHLY Top: Untitled sculpture, 7½ inches in height, stoneware, by Mary Barringer, Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.

Above: Coil-built stoneware sculpture, 73 inches in length, Mary Barringer.

Right: Formerly a functional potter, Mary Barringer is now focusing on sculptural ideas: “As I negotiate the border zone between pottery and sculpture, I try to speak both of simple acts—to contain, to share, to t/icw reveal—of the complex experiences these acts embody. ”

November 1992 39 Above: Jim Connell, Rock Hill, South Carolina, alters wheel-thrown vessels to “produce a secondary three-dimensional surface on the primary form. ”

Above right: Lidded jar, 16 inches in height, thrown and carved, with copper blue glaze, raku fired, by Jim Connell. Right: Pitcher, 14 inches in height, thrown-and-carved stoneware, with carbon-trap glaze, by Jim Connell.

40 CERAMICS MONTHLY Right: “Tool Shed, ” 68 inches in height, handbuilt stoneware, with paints, by Mitchell Messina, Rochester, New York.

Right: Mitchell Messina works with “clay translations of objects," assembled as balanced sculptures “to comment on theparadoxy and fragility of the human condition. ” Far right: “Separated House, ” 67 inches in height, painted stoneware, by Mitchell Messina.

November 1992 41 Left: Matt Nolen, New York City, produces porcelain urns and lidded jars with images “relating to social and political ideas. The results are vessels that comment on contemporary values. ”

Far left: “'Apothecary Jar No. 4: Implants, ” 13 inches in height, porcelain, with brushed undergLizes/glazes, by Matt Nolen. Left: “Apothecary Jar No. 2: Ozone, ” 14 inches in height, handbuilt porcelain, with underglazes and glazes, by Matt Nolen.

42 CERAMICS MONTHLY Oval pitcher, 8 inches high, thrown-and-altered porcelain, fw/A Thrown-and-altered porcelain pitcher, 5 inches in height, glazed rutile matt glaze, Cone 10 reduction fired, by Lee Rexrode. black, dotted with Shino glaze, reduction fired, by Lee Rexrode.

Lee Rexrode, Edinboro, Pennsylvania, starts with a carefully thrown pot, then alters it, often dimpling the wall “to give gesture to the form and the space it contains. ”

November 1992 Part 1 The Clay War by Barry Targan

In a small alcove, or perhaps it is merely a The glass case is sealed, locked by a wood, of firing the kiln, of walking the 10 niche, on the west side of the New York concealed lock in the base to which the keymiles to the work? Metropolitan Museum of Art, behind the is misplaced or unrecorded. Someday the So what was there to be afraid of? Not rooms of dusty colored Egyptian vases and bulbs in the case will burn out, one by one. the pale, collapsed timorous elders of the urns and amphora-type vessels, standing Perhaps then the case will be dismantled village who despaired at his labor, that he quietly as doom and as forlorn, behind all and relit or even repositioned in the mu­ should work with his hands rather than those rooms to which few come and in seum. Or perhaps the case will come to be mumbling into toothlessness with them which no one lingers long, there is a small­ accepted that way, finally to be lighted over the scrolls, and who feared for them­ ish glass display case, about 3 feet high by 5only for a few hours each day from the selves through him, that he should enrage feet wide, which is sometimes lighted and reflected light of the Egyptian Room as the the governor or, worse, the rabble of sometimes not. It is as if the case were theresun passes over the glassed, transepted roof,Fremlen, by his audacity. And not the leer­ by accident; unlike the Egyptian pottery the vessels in the case quietly hidden in the ing bastard shop owner in Fremlen who and the more popular halls of French im­ New York Metropolitan Museum of Art sold Ephron’s work as his own and held the pressionists and Titians and Tintorettos andlike a solemn and honorable promise of threat of exposure at Ephron’s butt like a the great fake Etruscan warrior threatening silence, though with no grandeur lost in white-hot drawing iron ready to brand him forever, high up in the ether of the mu­ the keeping of it nor beauty dimmed. before the world. He had learned despite seum, which are lighted by an automated Ephron Gherst came from Poland to them all and had married Fanny when he and computerized, central-control panel in this country in 1878 when he was 23 years needed her. (And what a crying out there the museum’s deeps, the small glass display old. He came with a wife his own age had been at that!) And he had made a son case is illuminated only when a guard, ac­ whom he insisted on calling, in this coun­ and had earned and saved and even stolen cidentally passing by it, notices that it is try, Fanny (in Poland it had been Fanaela), to come away to here to form and pursue darkened and stops to attend to it. for he determined that that was the Amer­ his dream. The guard flicks the ordinary light ican style and he would, now that he was His dream was simple enough: to live switch on the side of the case and the three here, practice it. English, he declared, was without fear and to live by what he was fluorescent bulbs stutter on slowly. They all they would speak as soon as they learnedable and pleased to do. He was a crafts­ are old bulbs with antique starters. Not an it. He came, too, with a son, Aerrie, age man. He wanted a place to make his wares, art historian, he is yet familiar enough five. And he came with a skill. He was a a kiln to fire them in, a chance to sell them, through his years of peripheral rounds to potter. Besides $100 after the passage, that a house to live in, a garden to grow his see that these objects are different from thewas all he came with: strong youth, re­ potatoes for the winter. Beyond that, what? Egyptians nearby or from the Greeks be­ sponsibility, a craft. But what more was More sons? A gold piece or two to bury yond. there? And this was America, so what more against hard times? For once a fine dress In the glass case is a teapot with six cupsdid he need? and boots of the softest leather for Fanny? surrounding it, a low bowl about 20 inches He put in his greenhorn year in New And that was all. wide at the rim, a pitcher about 12 inches York City. It wasn’t bad. The leap from the “All,” Kollowitz said. “All?” He came high, and then, taking up almost a third of weeping, muddy hovel of his birth and around from the heavy desk in his tumbled, the case, a great, glowing, metallic red rearing, with its slow realities of seasons strewn office and sat down next to Ephron bubble of a lidded porcelain bottle as wide and its relentless poverty and mad danger, and took the glass of half-drunk tea out of as it is high. It looks as if, freed from the into the sharp, paved, artificial clatter and his hand. “Aren’t you forgetting something? case, it would float pulsingly upward. All angular brightness of the quick and grow­ Aren’t you forgetting the fancy brownstone the other pieces are muted, earthy and ing city, was just right for Ephron Gherst on Twenty-third Street, the one with the matt, glistening like stones after a rain has just then. He was a learner, an adapter to servants? Aren’t you forgetting the carriage dampened them. The tones of the pieces possibilities, more concerned to eat what­ with the two matched horses? And what shift about on the surfaces, mottled hue ever life served up rather than to judge and about the summer house by the ocean? Tell blending into hue so that each inch is select, a man of appetite before taste, thoughme, Ephron, why are you forgetting all different, although one can never tell when not without taste. An adventurer, perhaps. these things? they become different. The pieces are like Perhaps, too, he was enchanted, either vic­ “Speak in English,” Ephron said. fire itself, definable but amorphous, presenttim or source—or both—of a fine and “Ain,” Kollowitz said, slapping his fore­ and gone in the same instant. The guard potent magic. Had he not already done the head and getting up and going back be­ reaches out to touch the pieces and bumps impossible, learned a highly skilled craft in hind the desk where he felt safer. “You his hand against the glass. Do not touch. a country that explicitly and threateningly don’t know English, Ephron Gherst,” he Do not lean on the glass. But his hand is prohibited him from doing so? Had he not said in English, “so how can I speak to you on the glass and he thinks that if the glass married on nothing, less than nothing, on in it? All right, all right,” Kollowitz raised were not there, he would touch the pieces the wage the cheating bastard in Fremlen his hands. What he had to say, even in regardless, that he would daringly pick thempaid him for the platters and baking dishes English, wouldn’t be too difficult for up and try them, and if, unimaginably, he and cups that he turned out, for the killing Ephron to understand. What he had to say could, he would eat and drink from them. labor of mixing the clay, of cutting the was no.

44 CERAMICS MONTHLY Kollowitz was a cousin to Ephron before he knew anything, he imagined this ered steps but had already decided on leap­ Gherst, so distant that it was impossible to be his place. Effortlessly available quan­ ing. Then he would have to be tougher. for either of them to establish or deny the tities of wood to fire his kilns, and pine “Five hundred I can’t lend you, Ephron, connection. In the puddle of a village, less wood at that, the long and quick flame of so that is that.” He settled back. He glanced than a crossroads, in which Ephron had pine so perfect for his kind of pottery. The at his watch. He was a busy man and spent most of his life, Kollowitz was the clays that he would find and buy from the Ephron had had enough of his time. Cli­ one thread-thin bond that any of them Trenton mills. The closeness to cities whereents were waiting in the outer room. had to the New World. Not this Kollowitz, he could someday sell—Philadelphia, Tren­ “Four hundred, then?” was what Ephron who was not much older than Ephron, but ton, New York—and more. It was every­ said. to a grandfather or perhaps even a great­ thing. And surely, if there was a pottery “Four hundred? If you needed abso­ grandfather. When the village would speak industry already, it was a sufficient sign lutely five, so now how come suddenly you of America, it meant not a place but a singlethat the conditions were right for a one- can do it on four?” declarative statement: Kollowitz went there.man It operation. His trips to the region con­ “I can’t,” Ephron laughed, roared. “But was all they had to say about so arcane a firmed him. His mind made up, he walked I will.” subject as America, until the expression cameabout in that countryside to find his place They settled finally at $300. With a to mean nothing at all. When some stray on earth. weary shrug Kollowitz had given in, but breeze over the marshes brought with it It took most of the summer. First only not without hope. For when he asked, America, someone would say, “Kollowitz wentusing the long Sunday, leaving New York with a businessman’s reflex to a troubled there,” and that would be that. in the dark on the rattling milk train and agreement, but in softening humor, what There were many Kollowitzes in New arriving at Trenton still in the dark. Then Ephron had to offer for collateral, after York, and it took Ephron two months of he would steal a Saturday from work, then first explaining what collateral meant, daily searching to find the only Kollowitz Ephron held up his two hands to him who remembered Fremlen, if only vague and said, “These.” and muffled mentions of it. But that had Ephron Gherst came from Poland It was better than Kollowitz had got­ been enough. Kollowitz liked Ephron, ten from many another. admired his odd history, his rare skill, his to this country in 1878 when he By the time the first snows of early easy courage, and accepted the obliga­ was 23 years old.... He was a potter. December came, Ephron, Fanny and tion to help. He got Ephron a job at the boy were home. Ephron had sawed, once in a small leather-goods factory at hammered and patched against time and the river end of Canal Street, sweeping up, more and more of them, until he was had won. Each fresh and sound timber moving material, and slowly learning a littlewarned by his boss at the leather factory. replacing a rotted one shored up his life, about cutting the hides into straps and But by then he had found it: a shack for a each nail driven into each firm, shaven belts. There were no potteries in New Yorkhouse, a shallow well, and acres of scrubby board sang to him the descant more an­ for him to work in. pine. In two creek beds nearby he had cient than man of home, of place. Door And Kollowitz reestablished Ephron found some promising clay deposits, roughjambs, headers, shingles, shelves, posts, two Gherst’s family in a tenement better than fireclay that he could use to build the kiln rafters, three joists, and an entire sill on the one they had been led to that first day and some good earthenware clay, which one side of the building. Pushing in a bel­ off the boat by the landlord agents who might get him started with some low-fire lying wall, twisting straight a canted corner came to feed on their helplessness like gullsthings until he got settled enough to move of the building, he beat his shack into a hovering in a ship’s wake. And although on. Best, he found the owner, and learned house and comfort in 18-hour hosannas, Kollowitz could not see the Ghersts so­ that the property could be bought: $200. in flower bursts of energy like the sudden cially—he was too well established for “Ephron. Friend. How can I give you autumn asters all about him. The weather that—he visited them each month, laden $500?” stayed good. It kissed him and he kissed it with food and clothing and a toy for Aerrie. “Lend,” Ephron corrected him. “Two back. Besides his potter’s craft, this was the Then they would sit for a few hours over hundred for the property, the rest for nails, first of anything he had ever owned. Al­ glasses of strong orange-colored tea and tellwood, tools, things, food for the winter.” ready it was superior to all he had left in each other about what each lacked— “Lend, give, is not the point. I’m talk­ the mud 10 miles from Fremlen. Kollowitz his Polish past, Ephron his Amer­ing about the risk. To start this way...” Fanny gathered herbs and late berries ican future. Kollowitz shook his head back and forth, and fruits and then mushrooms, scouring But this that Ephron now asked for— weighty with his knowledge of business the fields and nearby roads with a thor­ wanted—was impossible. ways and the world, a pendulum swinging oughness the already abundant Americans Since the early spring, since April, from doubt to doubt. “What I’m saying is could not comprehend. And established Ephron had been going by himself into you would be taking on all the problems at chickens. And acquired a goat, the start of New Jersey, to the capital, Trenton, on the once—the making, the selling, the build­ a flock of geese, a cat. She sewed and train, and then from Trenton, by wagon ing, the... the...everything. If anything went mended and arranged. Nothing ended but when he could beg a ride but mostly by wrong anywhere along the line...buuum.” that it began. To Aerrie the work was play. foot, into the edges of the pine woods, Kollowitz threw his arms wide, leveling So when the snow was higher than they which was most of the state. He had heard Ephron’s life. “Go a step at a time. Get a could fight through out to the clogged about this New Jersey and its endless and job in the factories in Trenton. Then get road, they were ready. Wood, food, Aerrie, mysterious stretches of pine at about the the land. Then build. Get the feel of the the preparations for spring—the garden, same time that he had learned that Tren­ market. You see what I mean? Aiii,” he the kiln, the workshop—all, all of it a ton was the pottery center of the East, of slapped at his forehead again, seeing from sustaining gaiety, a reliable pledge that life probably all of America. At once, even Ephron’s face that he had indeed consid­ had its reasons and its ways.

November 1992 45 Only once, in October, before the earth white ball clay from those places, Ken­ he implored, pulling off his hat and sink­ froze up, Ephron had paused for a week to tucky and Tennessee. Even in America theying to his knees. He laughed, to make his dig clay from the nearby creek beds and to were just coming into use. So Ephron urgency acceptable. They gave him a hatful go the difficult 20 miles to Trenton to seek lugged out to the one mill he had been of the clay after he explained how he would out additional clays and other supplies. He told might have this clay, flouring the road test it. He told them about a type of shrink­ had returned late at night in a rented wagonwith sprinkles of his commoner clay age test for certain clays that they had never with what clay he needed, but with a worry through the cracks of the wagon sides at heard of, that he had developed himself. A too. Or the shadow of a worry perhaps. It every jounce, the horses unhappy and a hatful of clay for his useful discovery. A was hard to tell, as it is hard to tell if we long way yet to go. trade. The barter of craftsmen, uneven now, hear or if we think we hear a twig snap At the Mercer Clay Works, Ephron but the only trade in town. behind us in the tangled woods we some­ made his inquiries. The language of crafts­ At the special Tennessee ball clay stor­ times plunge through in dreams. men, any crafts, is simple, basic and direct, age shed, the men working there were quiet. He had gotten most of what he needed like the actions themselves. Few words are They were shovelers, the lowest workers, in Trenton, and if it had been hard bodily necessary to describe the nuances that the the inept extra sons who knew nothing of work, it hadn’t been too difficult to trans­ fingers achieve; to talk at length about the craft, destined only for early disability and act. The large potteries were not very inter­ cleanness with which a well-formed pitcher then death as their lungs calcified from the ested in selling raw materials, certainly not lip cut off the fluid stream that poured inescapable fume of clay they lived in. in the small amounts that Ephron wanted over it was a waste of breath. Could de- As the Trenton potteries established and and could afford, or could carry away. Still, enlarged through the century, whole Irish a precious dollar here and here and there villages were brought to America to be and there and a yard man at one mill and As the Trenton potteries established taught to work them, whole families and the chief mixer at another could be per­ and enlarged through the century, then generations stayed to live and die in suaded to look elsewhere for ten minutes them, scourged by silicosis, the potter’s dis­ or so. But what worked best for Ephron whole Irish villages were brought to ease, too inevitable to be dreaded any longer, was the absurdity. only one more penance they were taught When asked what he wanted the clay America to be taught to work to accept as a payment on the policy of the for, he would say, to make pottery. them, whole families and then life to come, where they, with God, would And the head man in the yard would breathe in the icy cool blue air, and all laugh above the clamor of the efficient generations stayed to live and die in would eat and drink from gold and silver mill, the dray loads of clays, broken and plate and not off the cursed clay. unrefined mountains or powdered and them, scourged by silicosis, the So when one of the young shovelers sifted, shifting from mound and building potter’s disease, too inevitable to be upon receiving orders handed a hatful of to tank and bins, the muffled roaring of the Tennessee dust to Ephron, he could the continuous fires in the building-high dreaded any longer. hear nothing of Ephron’s tremble of excite­ kilns and the monuments of steaming ment, the flutter of imagining. He could smokestacks a hundred feet high, the creak scribing the condition of the clay accom­ hear only the strangeness of Ephrons ac­ and screech of the compressors blending plish the same thing as the feel of the clay cent, see only the difference of his cloth­ and mixing and extruding the clays, the in the hand of the man who would use it? ing, the assurance of his walk, the hugging slap and skitter of the leather belts on the Could fire be measured by equipment in­ of his hat and the little dance of joy like it rods and gears and pawls arranged as powerstead of by its color and the shimmering was gems he held. All he could see was this take-offs for the wheels before which in­ hold with which it grasped the ware in the dark, straight, strong man, no older than conceivable rows of whitened men sat in kiln? So Ephron had little difficulty with himself, claiming his terrific rights to walk hunched and productive array. The head language during the day, for it wasn’t away by the side of his wagon to... But he man in the yard would open the black hole cracked English he spoke as much as it wascould go no further, shape no more of his of his mouth in the clay-cloaked body and the fundamental knowledges themselves, hate than that, just as with clay he could laugh and wave about like a lord to what­ the immediate and intuitive current of truthdo no more than fling it dryly about. He ever Ephron wanted. It was worth the goodto truth. By the time he was talking to the spat whitely upon the ground and remem­ joke. Anything to help a competitor, the people at the Mercer Clay Works on the bered. ghostly yard man had said. Bordentown side of Trenton, New Jersey, Passing out through the gates to the By three o’clock the steep-sided wagon Ephron had come to know at the ending Mercer Clay Works, Ephron felt Fremlen was full, but Ephron had not found one of this day that he had knowledges that at his back, the cold, harrying wind that clay, one kind of clay, the ball clays from none of the others had, that a man who would blow him from the city to his hovel. places called Tennessee and Kentucky, that lenew about this didn’t know as much aboutIn a spasm of panic he thought he was he wanted to learn about, to explore, to usethat. Was he the only potter in Trenton waking from a dream, that all that had in time. In his year in America, Ephron who fired the clay he himself shaped from been wonderful this year—the new city had heard of new materials unknown to the clay he himself mixed? and Kollowitz and the home a-building in Fremlen, the wondrous kaolins from Geor­ The Mercer Clay Worlds had the Ten­ the woods and the plans and the future gia and Florida, strong stoneware clay from nessee ball clay, and it was safely stored, riding in the wagon he led and even the Ohio, refractory flints, dense feldspars, secured from weather and thieves, and un­ exquisite joy of his dirt-full hat—that all of smooth fireclays from Pennsylvania and obtainable by any means. So Ephron it was dissolving into a murky, numbing even New Jersey, slip clays from Albany in begged. morning, that he was waking up to his New York State. But particularly he had “This much,” he pleaded, making a ordinary journey from his father’s hut to heard of the silky and plastic purity of the bushel with his arms. Nothing. “A hatful,” Fremlen, and that all the rest had not been.

46 CERAMICS MONTHLY He struck out at the horse to hurry it, to it was in Ephron’s will; perhaps it was the worked. George Barton had been silent outrun the terror. And then the panic was shapes in his head that called forth a clay too long with the scattering of his children, gone. He sighed and laughed and patted body that would keep a daring curve or a the death of his wife, the quickening all the horse to soothe it. All that was good clay that would sustain in the fire the arch­ about that had sealed over him. It was was still good. Trenton was not Fremlen. ing handle Ephron’s hands had stripped it good for him to find an Ephron, loud with Through the winter he prepared. In the into; perhaps his knowledge came out of life, boisterous with plans. And of course lean-to of peeled logs that he had attached the intimacy that love brings. there was the fire and the clay and the iron; to the house, he dried and cleaned and George Barton was the first person to there was all of that to talk about. mixed the clays he had dug himself in the befriend Ephron here. George Barton was Sometime before the spring George nearby creek. In a wooden mold he shaped the blacksmith for the Hightstown area. Barton dragged out of an unused stable the thousand special bricks he would fire He lived 3 miles farther in toward Hights­ stall a chest that only he could have moved in the spring and from which he would town than did Ephron but on the same alone, and opened it to Ephron. It was full build his mighty kiln, already planned and coarse road. He was 75 years old, white of delicacies of drawn wire and tapered drawn to the finest detail. Into other moldshaired but as straight as he had ever been; spikes, splatters and bursts of metal. he pounded his densest mixture of clays to all that was strong about him still strong, “Sometimes the iron would run so,” make the shelves for the kiln. Small his skin thick and darkened like the crust George Barton touched a splayed teardrop amounts of the clays he had gotten from on slow-baked bread by the decades of his of the dark cold metal. “Or here it would Trenton he mixed to special proportions forge’s fire. Fire was what he and Ephron splatter or break in...a way. I used to save and then rolled out into small rectangular had first in common, the catalytic element them. I couldn’t melt them back. I took to slabs that he would thoroughly dry and both worked with, and thereby knew and throwing them into here. I even made some fire and test to find all he would need to cherished. They touched each other on purpose for a time. A long time ago.” know about them. through it and discovered more. He dropped the lid to the chest and shoved He recorded his formulae and recipes Early, Ephron had sought out the near­ it back again into the past. He didn’t know and later his results like an alchemist pos­ est blacksmith and had found George what to think of it all, his doing that then sessed by the visions of what this and that Barton. He would have need of certain or even his showing it to Ephron now, only clay body could achieve if they worked out special fabrications difficult to make. that it didn’t need to be explained. Iron or to be what he struggled for in his imagina­ Ephron showed him sketches of the fram­ clay lived in fire. tion: the strength and the vitreous density ing he would need for his Jdln and of the It took strong men to drive them and and the color that the fired clay itself wouldrods he would need as he constructed his sometimes nothing at all could. Those were bloom into and lend to whatever glaze he potter’s wheel. And there would be other the moments George Barton had once would devise, and to guess at whatever things too. Yes, George Barton could do allsaved and once even dared to imitate, to good accidents might spring out of the fire that. And then they talked, Ephron as best reach out to capture the fundamental dig­ because he had prepared for them. It was he could about his plans to build, to make, nity of elements when they spume and all a glory of artistry to Ephron then, the to sell, to live here. flare as in memorial of their own birth freedom to work in the holy realm of his George Barton listened, his great clubs eonic distances ago. vision and his skill, to work only within of forearms twitching with their own “Yes,” Ephron had said to George the boundary of creation itself where there memories of 60 years ago when he had Barton, to himself “Like throwing the clay is no failure ever, for there, even if the test come with his father from the middle of into the air and firing it that way. To be tiles, carefully marked and numbered, England to where they were now, this very able to do that.” should melt or crumble or burst or warp orplace and land and smithy. The forge here “Yes,” George Barton had said. He had die in all the ways that they can in the fire was the forge he had built with his father, gone back to horseshoes and scrollwork that must try them, so that the philosopher’sstone upon stone. He told Ephron that and iron banding and weather vanes, as stone or the great elixir eluded him this there wasn’t a barn for miles about that Ephron Gherst prepared to go on to plates time, still they would not have gotten very didn’t swing its doors on Barton hinges. and jugs and bean pots. But Ephron far away. In the winter, when the snows of a thought that he would capture the flung What a glorious distance from Fremlen storm had packed themselves down or beenclay yet. now, where he had been jesseled to his driven into opening canyons in the road, Spring came quick and easily, the misty perch like a tame crow to do over and over Ephron would bundle down to the smithy. air not as soft as the winter-cleaned sun­ again all of the old things, including the Then the two men would sit for a time by light promised it would be, but soft enough foolish errors and the tradition-bound the constant fires and drink tea together, for Ephron and Fanny and the boy to faults, as though there was nothing more and George Barton would tell Ephron dance about in it. Ephron cut trees for a to know, or nothing further for a jug or a Gherst about this new country and his week, felling the thin pines, trimming the jar to be. Twice he had offered his im­ own old dreams and what it was all com­ branches and then, with no horse to do it, provements to his boss, each time to be ing to anyway. And Ephron would come hauling the logs out in small trailing rejected with scoffing and imprecations, so back full to his brim like one of his own bundles, he and Fanny haltered together, that he learned and found and imagined bottles to pour out all of George Bartons giggling and stumbling through the damp quietly and stored it up till his time would history to Fanny and Aerrie. needled matting of the forest floor. come—as it had now. To Ephron it was all a wonder that this He stacked the bricks of clay he had Why did he know all that he did? What land should be here now or that it had molded for the kiln through the winter was in him that he could rub a clay in his been as George Barton had found it. And and fired them like a brickmaker for three fingers or smell it or taste a little of it and George Barton was glad to speak to such a days. And when they were cool, or almost comprehend how the clay would work, listener, for Ephron accepted impressions cool, he built his Jdln like no ldln before it how it would likely fire and glaze? Perhaps as quickly and perfectly as the clay he had ever been built, with intricate mea­

November 1992 47 surements for the flue placement and ware was, if not selling yet, at least being job. A good one. Which Ephron politely fireboxes and ash pits, bag walls, peep­ curiously appraised, people attracted by it and absolutely refused. And that was to be holes. As he mounted the bricks in inter­ but unnerved, uncertain as people always the last he ever had to do with the Mercer locking patterns to eliminate all heat-losing are before wonders. Clay Works. At least officially. chinks, mortaring them together only with Ephron Gherst, the potter from Hights- On the way out of the office he passed wet clay, he shouted out to Fanny what he town, was beginning to be noticed, so muchby the shovelers he had seen the year before was doing, why this would do that, why it so that he had had to formalize his meth­ or perhaps these were others. Who could would work better than any kiln ever had, ods of procuring materials. To get his sup­ tell beneath their shroud of clay dust? Only fire higher temperatures more evenly plies now, he had to go through the front one, the one who spoke now. Ephron re­ throughout, be precisely controllable, why office. And pay. membered him, remembered the terrible it would do his will. At the Mercer Clay Works, it was not desperate glass blue-tinted eyes forever wet Fifty feet away Fanny dug in the loamy so easy. John Clough, the working owner, with a rage he could not comprehend. and sandy soil and laughed to herself to had heard about the successful advent of “Hey, yankle,” the blue-eyed man hear him. She would stop her work and Ephron Gherst and took no competition, shouted at Ephron as he passed by the grasp hands of the soil to watch it break large or small, for granted. It was not, how­group of cloudy men. Even sitting inactive apart softly and easily, to watch the rain sift ever, the daily low-fire production ware they created a stratus of clay, a climate, a down through it quickly, to kiss it for its that John Clough was thinking about when dry white weather of oblivion. “Hey, goodness. he refused to sell the Tennessee ball clay to yankle,” was all he shouted. Or could even Ephron came back to her from the door­Ephron at any price; it was the special, think to shout. way; he was halfway through and sat down occasional pieces of his that he had seen But it was enough. Ephron shuddered beside her and took her hands in his. “Lis­ and that he had heard spoken of that be­ from history. Fremlen was following him ten,” he said, “nothing bad can happen deviled him. Those pieces were like noth­ after all. here.” He raised her hands to his face. “Do ing produced in any of the local factories Ephron got his Tennessee ball clay at you think I would let it?” Then he got up or that could be produced there. John last. He had to buy it directly from the and went back to work. Clough understood that, but the pieces Tennessee fields through a shipper in Phila­ The kiln fired as well as he had ex­ were not like anything produced by any of delphia, and by the time it lay in burlap- pected it to, demanded it would. The the other small native potters either, from bagged piles in the storehouse, which he simple, low-fire wares—flowerpots, dishes, any place or from any time that John had added to the workshed, it had cost mugs—were excellent. And in Trenton they $200, a breaking sum, nearly thrice what it were more than acceptable, finely made would have cost had he been able to buy it and not expensive. He returned with moneyEphron...took out...a large bottle, in larger loads or to have bought it locally. and some orders. It had all begun at last. as round as it is possible Still, he had plans for it that would make it The garden and his business grew. From worth emeralds. his test tiles he selected the clay body that to imagine roundness to be. He had gotten some of the money from most suited him and mixed determined Kollowitz, whom he had visited late in the quantities of it, stoneware now, even some At the precise top pole of it a neck summer. They had written frequently over porcelains: high-firing, nearly translucent, and rim rose like an exquisite but the year, Ephron full of his bursting days, bold. And in the midst of all his business his inches of success, his ounces of gain, he contrived with more formulae, blend­ defiant pronouncement. Kollowitz full of his encouragement and ing and testing the precious Tennessee ball cautions. And of his pride in Ephron. clay into amalgams fit to hold the ara­ Clough lmew of. Ephron’s special pieces “Mad,” Kollowitz said as they sat to­ besques and pavanes of shapes that pushed were fired to as ringing a strength and gether in his summer-hot office. “What is through him until he could not breathe density as the best bone china produced by it? The trip up here did this to you? The with the pressure of them and until he the Mercer Clay Works, but the pieces heat? Overwork?” Ephron had just ex­ would shout out the building joy of think­ looked like the fire, like the fire had been plained to him his need. “You are getting ing that he would make what he would frozen, all the impurities of the clay burned on your feet, you are just about ready to someday make. into beauty. And the size of some of these meet your bills and your old debts, and He tramped about in nearby streams to pieces, and the balance and certainty of all now you are talking about a loan, about discover pebbles that had trapped flickers of them were beyond anything the jigging new debts? What’s wrong with what you of oxides, and then he would pulverize and and extruding and casting machines of the are doing? Making a living isn’t enough?” grind them down in a machine that George factories could match. But it was Kollowitz and not Ephron who Barton had devised for him. He hoarded John Clough had no fear that these fine was sweating. Ephron was used to heat and these exotic colorants in small leather sacks pieces of this Ephron Gherst would estab­ to living in the only day before him. Disas­ like other men had held the gold dust they lish a competing style or would challenge ters were in the future; dreams were now. broke out of the rocks of another coast. the main production lines as determined Ephron listened and smiled as Kollowitz By September his life had begun to seat by him and the larger pottery manufactur­ dizzied himself in the tightening swirls of itself, diligence wearing away the obstruc­ ers of Trenton or of Europe, but he saw nohis practical fears, doubts evoking doubts. tions, asserting the patterns, deepening the good reason to abet or to encourage the He was particularly upset by the forebod­ grooves that round and control our days. kind of skill and knowledge that Ephron’s ing refusal of John Clough. “Why?” he The orders for what he was making—the work represented. He would not sell said at last, exhausted by the heavy black low-fire earthenware—were increasing Ephron Gherst the Tennessee ball clay; therechimeras he had lifted up for Ephron to steadily and were almost enough to sustain was too much more that he might make see. “What do you need this clay for? What them, and even his blazing high-fire stone­ out of it. But John Clough offered him a Please Turn to Page 85

48 CERAMICS MONTHLY As the republics of the Soviet Union establish independent governments, times are difficultfor ceramists like Rafael Saifulin, whose scheduled exhibition at the Museum of Ethnography in Saint Petersburg was indefinitely postponed.

A Russian Night by Rafael Sailulin

I arrived in Kikerino one foggy morn­ technical ceramics, but I did all kinds ests lie in using clay objects as a canvas ing on a local train with leaf-green pas­ of other things at first. I remember mod­ for brushed imagery. Although I have senger cars. It is a small village, lost in eling ceramic springs (which, to the participated in exhibitions at home and the fir trees, about 45 miles from Saint surprise of local connoisseurs, were ac­ abroad, the only true critic of this work Petersburg. tually springy), rolling out enormous is my own heart. I was wearing a cap and clothes slabs, pouring slip knee-high onto the Sometimes I go to Saint Petersburg, washed out by time and long wear, and floor, mixing surprisingly abominable see friends and “go wild.” Sometimes, had a cigarette in the corner of my colors. I even carried sacks of animal when I am tired of everything, I go into mouth—an ordinary sight at any rail­ bones from the local restaurant to cal­ the silent, sad woods, taking along only way station in Russia. cine for bone china. I invented idiotic a sketchbook and some potatoes. When It was not difficult for me to find the devices that served for only a few min­ the evening comes, with its bright stars ceramics factory, as its sooty chimneys utes before breaking. But as a rule, my and crickets, I think about other pot­ could be seen from afar. I remember tricks were a success and I got the ters far away, twisting clay in the palms entering at the sound of a bell that was sought-after aesthetic effect. I enjoyed of tired hands. As the smoke from a covered with layers of paint near the this very much. strong cigarette gradually dissipates in main gate. I am not sorry for those nights frit­ the night air, fresh wind fills my mind The plant specializes in producing tered away; however, today my inter­ with ideas and hope. A

November 1992 49 “Come Around,” a still-life composition made of glazed stoneware (with the exception of the driedflowers and some wire), approximately 5 feet in length.

“Pain,” approximately 30 inches in height, stoneware, bisqued at Cone 8, decorated with underglaze pigments, covered with a thin coat of clear glaze, fired to Cone 05. Left: “Coffee for an Artist, ” to 9 inches in height, stoneware, with actual paintbrush, pencils and wooden palette, by Rafael Saifulin, Kikerino, Russia.

50 CERAMICS MONTHLY An Environmentally Safe Spray Booth by Bill Campbell

Editor’s note:Also see “A Low-Cost Sprayparticulates coming through this system trial equipment is sold. This type of fan Booth” by Lawrence Blazey in the May 1991to require a permit. has an aluminum (sparkless) blade, and issue of CM. A drain at the bottom of the tank its motor, drive belts and ball bearings facilitates the removal of the settled glaze are protected from any debris moving No one wants to pollute the environ­ materials from time to time. Drained through the air stream. A shutter over ment with glaze overspray, but most into a bucket, this scrap can be recycled the exhaust opening in the studio wall spray booths designed to catch airborne (if you are spraying only one glaze) or will keep cold air from coming in when particles leave something to be desired. left to dry completely for disposal. Re- the fan is not in use. To avoid any spe­ One solution is an environmentally sponsible/safe disposal involves putting cial lighting, keep light fixtures outside friendly booth that uses ordinary tap the dry scrap glaze into scrap bisque- the booth. water to “scrub” exhaust air. ware and firing until vitreous, before Caution: Despite the fact that virtu­ This scrubbing action is quite simple. discarding it with your regular trash. ally no glaze particles make it to the Water from a reservoir at the bottom of Glaze that has been turned into a solid outside, you should still wear a respira­ the booth is pumped by a submersible is accepted at most landfills. tor when spraying. Remember, air at pump (A) through a lV^-inch-diameter Exhaust power for the booth is pro­ the front of the booth is just entering plastic pipe (running up the exterior of vided by a tubeaxial fan—often found the filtering system, and you only have the booth) into another P^-inch-diam- for less than retail wherever used indus­ one set of lungs. ▲ eter pipe (B)—horizontally mounted through the walls on either side of the booth and along the top of a sheet- metal backdrop (C). This horizontal pipe has ¾-inch-diameter holes drilled along its top, so that water sprays up toward a second backdrop (D) of curved sheet metal. (Any commercial roofer or metal shop should be able to do the sheet- metal work for a reasonable price.) When glazing, some overspray sim­ ply falls through the expanded metal floor of the booth, but air drawn up and over the primary backdrop (C) must pass through water falling from the curved secondary backdrop (D) toward the primary backdrop. Any particulates that are not caught by this waterfall must then pass through water spraying from the horizontal pipe (B), then through a second waterfall directed by the bottom of the secondary backdrop toward the back of the primary back­ drop. The particulate-laden water sim­ ply flows to the reservoir below. Almost all glaze overspray is stopped by that first waterfall. At my studio in Pennsylvania, an inspector from the De­ partment of Environmental Resources found that there weren’t even enough

November 1992 51 Valdez Flashfiring by John Ramer Sherrill

Years ago, I read a well-intentioned warn­ a small crack, which thwarted the idea 06 to at least 1900°F as quickly as I can, ing about reduction firing: “Be very care­ of refiring it, so I decided to subject it to then adjust the kiln to absolutely maxi­ ful that you do not over reduce. The an experiment I had long considered. mum reduction, with the most ineffi­ novice loves to see flames and smoke Firing up my hand-held propane torch, cient flame possible. I cover the port belching from the kiln, but when it I turned the flame on the blackened almost entirely, leaving an open slit of ½ comes time to open the kiln, he finds vase, and was transfixed as startling pat­ inch or less through which to view the blackened, ruined pots inside.” terns of purple, blue and green bloomed kiln interior. I then adjust the gas regu­ I dutifully tried to follow that advice, before my eyes—the flashfiring tech­ lator valve so that a lick of orange flame but fortunately had some firing disas­ nique had been born. Because the iri­ escapes from the slit. The size of the ters along the way. I say “fortunately” descent colors look much like oil on flame is not important, but it must be because to succeed at Valdez flashfiring, water and because I had fired the vase billowing black smoke, as dense as you you’ve got to ruin some pots. After they shortly after the Exxon Valdez disaster, a can make it. The interior of the kiln are properly “ruined,” you can quickly friend jokingly christened it the “Valdez must be so smoky that your view is and easily transform them into vessels Vase” and, naturally, the name stuck. obscured. If burner output is visible, of vibrant color, with iridescent effects I was enthused by my discovery, and adjust it for long, wavering, yellow flame. that can be achieved in no other way. immediately tried the propane torch on Under these conditions, the kiln will Valdez flashfiring was invented a variety of pots, without achieving any begin to cool rapidly and you may need through a series of accidents, revealed in color changes at all. I even persisted on a to monitor it closely to keep reduction this article for the first time. The method couple, until I actually turned some ar­ conditions as constant as possible until is rather bizarre and some traditionalists eas red-hot; all I succeeded in doing was the temperature has fallen below 1200°F. are going to be horrified; purists may cracking the vessels. Eventually I real­ Then you can shut the kiln down. Make faint outright. ized that this technique absolutely will no judgments about the failure or suc­ Just over a year ago, I was throwing not work unless the pot is primed first cess of the firing until the temperature at the wheel while bringing a reduction by saturating it with carbon. has fallen below 900°F, because even the firing up to temperature. Engrossed in I have experimented with this firing faintest glow will fool you into thinking my work, I forgot about the kiln for method for over a year now, wasting a the pots have not blackened. some time. When this awful realization lot of propane in the process. Because it If, at this time, the pots are grass finally jarred my consciousness, I dashed is a bit tricky, I will describe what I do as green, your atmosphere was, of course, outside to find my raku kiln in runaway well as I can, so that anyone wishing to hopelessly oxidizing. If the color is bur­ mode, billowing smoke and flame, about try it will not have to duplicate my gundy or copper, the tdln was only con­ 200°F over temperature. I quickly shut mistakes. ventionally reduced; the glaze results can the burners down, waited for everything The objective of the reduction firing be quite pretty, but they are not Valdez. to cool, then winched the top up to is to blacken the pots, so that in appear­ The kiln must be choked further. If the reveal a group of blackened pots, firmly ance they are a dark, dull, uniform, char­ color is blue or purple, you are very glued to their shelves by the glazes pooled coal gray. If the firing has succeeded, the close. If the final color is a uniformly at their bases. glaze will not be glossy at this stage. dull charcoal gray, you have succeeded, One blackened vase stood out from The upper section of my kiln, a com­ and you are ready for the next stage. the others because there was no glaze mercially available design, is winched Call some friends over. Seeing their puddle at its base. I had coated it with a up. The top and bottom sections fit mouths drop open while you color your recipe given to me by Robert Milner, snugly together, so that oxygen can get pots with a torch is great fun. which he called “Copper Lust.” Not in only through the port at the top and If the pots are the wrong color, you only was the glaze not puddled, it had from around the burners. Valdez can immediately bring the kiln back up not even run, though it was designated flashfiring may be harder to accomplish to temperature and try again. The best a Cone 06 glaze like the others. with a kiln of looser construction. I fire Valdez vase I ever made was fired six Examining the vase carefully, I noted my preferred glaze well beyond Cone times in rapid succession the same day. I

52 CERAMICS MONTHLY A pot is properly “charred” for Valdez Soft golden color appears when the torch Intense colors are achieved by holding the flashfiring when uniformly charcoal gray. is lightly fanned over the surface. flame closer to the potfor a few seconds.

was ready to give up when it finally are instantly erased and are replaced by Not all copper glazes can be treated came out right. the golden color. Now bring the flame in this manner, but a lot of them can. When a vase turns out properly tip straight toward the glazed surface, to The three listed below are raku glazes, “charred,” do not remove it with your within an inch or so, hold it for about a but I am reasonably sure that stoneware bare hands; use clean gloves or a cloth, second, then quicldy withdraw it. In­ reduction glazes would also work. as oils from your skin will mar the glaze tense, vibrant colors will bloom before Glaze 1 surface before you finish it with the your eyes after the flame is removed. I (Cone 010-06, reduction) propane torch. have done this many times but it re­ GerstleyBorate(Colemanite) .... 82.0% Set the pot to be torched on a non- mains a fascinating sight. Cornwall Stone...... 18.0 There are many ways of manipulat­ combustible surface. Adjust the torch 100.0% flame to maximum and play it gently ing the flame, and an infinite variety of Add: Cobalt Carbonate...... 1.1% across the glaze surface, keeping the tip patterns is possible. If you are unhappy Copper Carbonate...... 2.1% 3 to 4 inches away from the pot. Don’t with some area of the pattern you have Yellow Ocher...... 8.0% hold the flame on any one area, as the created, simply sweep the flame over it pot will overheat at that point and crack. (while it is cool) to erase it, then redeco­ Glaze 2 Fan the flame back and forth until a rate. Bear in mind, however, that each (Cone 6, reduction) soft, golden color appears. Now the car­ erasure means that the next pattern will Gerstley Borate (Colemanite)...... 50% bon saturating the glaze is invisibly link­ be slightly less vibrant. Once you are Talc...... 30 ing with free oxygen, thereby becoming satisfied with the patterns, you can Nepheline Syenite...... 20 handle the pot with your bare hands. carbon dioxide. It is best to continue 100% this procedure until the entire pot has Your fingerprints will still have some Add: Copper Carbonate...... 3% been freed of carbon. If some areas of adverse effects if you later redecorate, bright colors appear, don’t worry about but not nearly as much as they would This one, from Robert Keyser, appeared them, but try to avoid it. At this stage have had you touched the pot at an in the December 1991 CM. It matures you only want to drive the carbon out. earlier stage. to a pleasant matt at Cone 06, but I Just remember to use a light touch with The color blooms are on the outer have fired it a bit higher successfully. the propane torch. surface of the glaze only, and I don’t yet Let the pot cool to room tempera­ know how they will hold up over time. I Glaze 3: Copper Lust ture. If you proceed while it is still hot, still have that vase from the first firing (Cone 06-02, reduction) the colors will be much less bright. If and it has retained its color. To ensure Gerstley Borate (Colemanite)...... 70% you are impatient, as I often am, put it that ambient oxidation would not oc­ Plastic Vitrox...... 30 in the freezer. Remember, though, until cur, I have tried coating test pieces with 100% it is finished, handle it with a cloth. acrylic wax or a commercial protective Add: Copper Carbonate...... 4% With the pot cooled, you are ready spray. Both substances instantly and un- Cobalt Carbonate...... 2% for the final stage. Fire up the torch and acceptably muted the colors. Perhaps a sweep it quickly across any areas that CM reader can offer a suggestion for a Copper Lust, the most versatile of have turned green, blue or purple. They sealer that won’t affect the colors? the three, is my preferred glaze. In a

November 1992 53 normal raku firing, it yields a beautiful due to its nonfluid nature. It can be plete Book of Clay and Glazes, and both copper gloss. With the colorants de­ used to save pots that crack in the bisque work well for Valdez flashfiring: leted, it is a superior clear raku glaze that firing, as long as the crack is not in the White Throwing Body 1 yields deep, dark crackles. Best of all, it lip or on the bottom. This is true for (Cone 2-3) absolutely will not run when fired at even really bad cracks. Simply mix the Custer Feldspar...... 5% raku temperature. glaze thickly (with the colorants listed) Nepheline Syenite...... 10 With the proportions of the base in­ and trowel it into the crack, then apply Wollastonite...... 5 gredients reversed (colemanite 30% and an extremely thick layer of glaze over Kaolin...... 45 plastic vitrox 70%), Copper Lust be­ the crack, inside and out. On large ves­ Kentucky Ball Clay (OM 4)...... 25 comes a Cone 6 stoneware glaze. In sels, I have piled it on as heavily as ¾6 Flint...... 10 fact, the ratio of these two ingredients inch thick. Applied that thickly, it will 100% can be manipulated so that the glaze run an inch or so, so proceed accord­ matures at any point in between. ingly. Not only will the crack be obliter­ White Throwing Body 2 Copper Lust can also be applied to ated, but the vessel, when struck, will (Cone 01-3) greenware directly; however, this is true ring like a bell. This method of mend­ Talc...... 5% only for firings with a gradual cooling ing cracks with glaze has also proved to Nepheline Syenite...... 20 period, such as Valdez, definitely not for be quite suitable for Valdez firings. Kaolin...... 20 quickly cooling raku firings. Using these glazes, you should be Kentucky Ball Clay (OM 4)...... 30 The Cone 06 version can be reduc­ able to do a perfect Valdez firing at Flint...... 25 tion fired to Cone 02 without running, some point in the first half-dozen at­ 100% and can yield combinations of colors tempts, instead of the many dozens of that include green, burgundy, blue, trials it took me before achieving consis­ Oh, and don’t try a Valdez flashfiring purple, lavender or pure copper (some­ tent results. on a really windy day; you won’t be able times matt surfaced if rapidly fired). The clay bodies I use them on are to get enough smoky reduction because Another great feature of this glaze is from James Chapelle’s The Potters Com­ there will be just too much air moving. A

Valdez flashfired vase, 5 inches in height , wheel-thrown stoneware, with copper glaze, by John Ramer Sherrill, Lake Toxaway, North Carolina. “Eyespot” patterns were created by moving the torch flame in then out.

54 CERAMICS MONTHLY A Ceramics Monthly Portfolio Unconventional in his subject matter liefs appealed to his own growing sense around Voulkos, has identified a and technical processes, California art­ of rebellion against convention. Rothman series of Hiroshima-Nagasaki ist Jerry Rothman deals with the con­ While in his teens, Rothman had sculptures from this period as “perhaps flicts and tensions that direct human been a furniture maker’s apprentice, ad­ the first antinuclear ceramic work,” an activity. In vessels and sculpture—of­ vancing to journeyman by age 21. But indication of Rothman’s early sensibil­ ten combinations of the two forms— he knew he didn’t want to remain, in ity to political events. his images question relationships his words, a “wood butcher.” The classes Another visitor, this one a represen­ between men and women, people and he took at L.A.C.C. and the Art Center tative from Sango-Kausga, Inc., a hold­ nature, the environment and other School then in Los Angeles had given ing company of Nagoya, came seeking sociopolitical issues. him the required units, but not the a designer. Rothman was interested and At times his work is subtle, but many undergraduate degree necessary to en­ admittedly “overconfident” of his abil­ of his monumental sculptures of the ter Voulkos’ master of fine arts pro­ ity. Once again, before finishing a pro­ 1960s are confrontational and demand­ gram. Nevertheless, Voulkos accepted gram for a degree, he left school, ing. Rothman admits that as a young him as a graduate student after Rothman accepting a design position in Japan. man he was more intense about seek­ had taken a class with Harrison McIn­ Marer observed that Rothman’s back­ ing to change the world through his tosh at L.A.C.A.I. ground in industrial design brought him art, or at least to make viewers question Reflecting on his subsequent year into conflict with the purists of the their values and social attitudes. Though and a half with Voulkos, Rothman later 1950s and ’60s, who tended to look he claims time has mel­ down on those who en­ lowed his outlook, a re­ tered the commercial cent series depicts stocky arena. Yet the more than figures burdened by ob­ ten years Rothman sub- jects that refer to the sequendy spent in indus­ crushing national debt try offered opportunities or environmental crises. for developing innova­ The seminal 1960s, tive technical processes the period in which that would also affect his Rothman matured as an studio sculpture. artist, determined the di­ While designing rection his work would products for export to take. Also a factor was the United States, Roth­ his family’s move from man discovered the Brooklyn to Los Ange­ complex world of Japa­ les in 1946—a culture nese ceramics. He had shock for a 13-year-old been introduced to Bi- boy who wasn’t in tune zen and Shigaraki ware with the local teenage Jerry Rothman with figures from his “You Choose” series of politically on trips with the Voul­ craze for hot rods, “ma­ acerbic sculpture at his studio in Laguna Beach, California. kos group to Little To­ chismo” and sports. But kyo (in downtown Los by age 24, when Rothman entered Los commented that the camaraderie and Angeles). But in Japan he had the op­ Angeles City College (L.A.C.C.) as an the competition between himself and portunity to see the work of Shoji Ha- industrial design major, he was better fellow students—John Altoon, Billy A1 mada, mingei potters and others; Kyoto’s prepared to meet the unexpected. An Bengston, Michael Frimkess, John Ma­ Kanjiro Kawai became his favorite. Long exhibition of Peter Voulkos’ abstract, son, Kenneth Price, Paul Soldner and before the 1970s, when large numbers nonfunctional vessels at the Felix Henry Takemoto—made a potent of American potters visited Japan and Landau Gallery was the catalyst that blend for, in Rothman’s words, a discovered Eastern philosophy, Roth­ committed him to a career in ceramics. “growth situation.” Voulkos shared and man was already familiar with Japanese Voulkos, who was then teaching at exchanged ideas, insights and knowl­ ceramics and attracted to a philosophi­ the Los Angeles County Art Institute edge, and was “a generous man in the cal system of belief that attempted to (L.A.C.A.I., now known as Otis Art In­ broadest sense,” acknowledging the understand nature. stitute), was creating innovative forms, group’s contribution to his work and to The Japanese, in turn, were im­ ignoring many of the taboos of clay each other. Indeed, Voulkos encour­ pressed with Rothman’s approach to tradition. Rothman was intrigued. The aged experimentation, and, together clay and the size of the pots he was idea of questioning the prevailing be­ with Rothman, often tried combining capable of throwing. He was allowed steel, acrylics and cement with clay. time for his own work and exhibited in Portfolio cover: “Caught,"55 inches in The L.A.C.A.I. classroom was open galleries and department stores, as is height, wheel thrown and handbuilt, to many visitors. Collector Fred Marer, traditional for Japanese artists. Also brushed with acrylics; on metal “graph. ” who became a friend to the group shown were company seconds—16-

A Ceramics Monthly Portfolio inch-diameter porcelain blanks—that Along with developing glaze appli­ culmination of the “Central Park” se­ Rothman had repainted in a style close cations for special purposes and rede­ ries, “Not in Central Park,” consisted to traditional Japanese art and refired signing production tools and machines of an 8-foot-high, circular, ceramic- with success. for industry, Rothman redefined the block enclosure supported by steel. The When Sango-Kausga, Inc., sent ideas within the “Sky Pot” series. viewer walking into the structure was Rothman to New York in I960 to do Around 1963 the slab-supported form surrounded—almost bombarded—by some research, he decided it was time metamorphized into a “Central Park” huge, sand-painted and glazed floral to finish his M.F.A. degree at L.A.C.A.I. series, which dispensed with the soft forms emphasizing pistil, style, stamen The work completed in Japan and to­ fantasy of the “Sky Pots”; instead, fleshy and ovary (whose eroticism others rec­ ward the degree marks the beginning organic forms emerged that suggested ognized before he did). of themes he returned to and refined disembodied human parts. Beginning Rothman’s walled enclosure is com­ over the next 30 years. with “Not in Central Park” (1963-64), parable to the baroque style of 17th- The surfaces of a series of 14- to 16- Rothman’s baroque, aggressive sculp­ and 18th-century rooms, in which mu­ inch-tall “Sky Pots” suggested abstract tures had a corollary in the sexual revolt rals on walls and ceilings created an images of landscape—clouds, environment apart from daily birds, trees, flowers, butter­ life. “Not in Central Park” flies. As his imagery ex­ drew viewers into a sensuous panded, Rothman shifted to setting in which eroticism a thrown, conelike base sup­ could be seen as a normal porting flat slabs for a larger, part of nature. frontal surface. The wet clay Approaching this theme slabs were laid on sand col­ from a different angle, the ored with oxides and stains. series “On the Outside Only” Scale, too, expanded to as (1964-72) ironically sug­ much as 38 inches in height. gested that the facade pre­ His titles, such as “Where do sented to society about Birds Fly?” and “No Place human values is quite differ­ for a Butterfly,” expressed ent from what actually oc­ that aspect of early 1960s so­ curs. Before the currently ciety which looked beyond charged climate about sexual city streets and the urban imagery in art, Rothman pre­ landscape for a way to return sented nude, voluptuous to and relate to nature. Like figures floating in niches on an urbanite’s dream of a three ceramic columns—one countryside of azure blue serenely positioned upside- skies and sweet-smelling down, another depicting in­ grasses, the “Sky Pots” were a tercourse and a third showing protest of a sort against what childbirth (rarely a subject for city life had become. For sculpture). The boldness of these muscular, larger-than- Rothman, these ideas were “Whoopsy ”3 feet in height, assembledfrom wheel-thrown and percolating even before he left handbuilt elements, fired to Cone 04y brushed with acrylics. life-size nudes exhibited at for Japan, but no doubt the the M. H. de Young Memo­ importance of nature to Japanese art of the mid 1960s. His work reflected rial Museum prompted the art critic of and culture reinforced his thinking. what he considered the high price Amer­ the San Francisco Chronicle to title his After completing his M.F.A. in 1961, ican society paid for its Victorian atti­ article “Is Birth Pornographic?” and to Rothman continued as a consultant in tude toward sex. suggest that Rothman’s sculptures were industrial design, working for Max Fac­ Technically, the construction of some more alarming than the activities of the tor and Interpace Corporation (from of the “Sky Pots” and the “Central Park” hippies in the Haight-Ashbury district 1964 to 1968). Squeezed in between series required devising an interior struc­ of the city. these years (from 1962 to 1965), he ture to transfer weight from the heavy In 1969, Rothman began a teaching joined Larry Shep to form Potters As­ top to the vertical core. While Rothman career, accepting the offer of an assis­ sociated, which made well-designed, was a student at L.A.C.A.I., Voulkos tant professorship and a 2000-foot stu­ competitively priced stoneware plant­ had suggested he look into the use of dio from the University of Iowa. Having ers and other decorative accessories. The steel for architectural clay. This con­ solved numerous technical problems as time was right and the firm was suc­ structivist approach owes a debt to ar­ an industrial designer, consultant and cessful, but after solving development chitect Louis Sullivan. Rothman, in artist, he had a lot of knowledge and and production problems, Rothman turn, found steel support to be a solu­ experience to offer ceramics students. found it “boring being a mud-pumper.” tion to monumental scale in clay. His Indeed, his work of the late 1960s in- Above: “Leda in the Sky, "27 inches in height, handbuiltfrom slabs pressed onto sand glaze (sand mixed with oxides and frits).

Right: aRitual Vessel, ” approximately 20 inches in height, thrown and handbuilt, layered with different, color-saturated glazes to achieve a black with visual depth.

A Ceramics Monthly Portfolio volved using an extruder, an uncom­ The bicentennial inspired the imagi­ sculptural elements with vessel format, mon tool in university ceramics depart­ nation of art and industry alike. Roth­ these Cone 3 porcelain containers an­ ments at that time. “In Pugmill Art” man responded to an invitation to create ticipated the postmodern return to a (1969), a minimalistic sculpture that soup tureens for the Campbell Soup reinterpretation of elements in earlier depended completely on extruded ele­ Company’s 1976 exhibition by synthe­ art, yet were appropriate for the over­ ments, was considered by others to be sizing that venerable form with his ma- blown and affluent late 1970s. on the cutting edge of ceramic sculp­ cho-muscular style. Recalling the rituals The tureens of the early 1980s be­ ture and was purchased by the univer­ once associated with the serving of food came more austere and geometric. But sity’s new art museum. and the honor accorded his grand­ the sensual, baroque quality emerged Teaching in Iowa was productive, mother’s ornate tureen, he produced again in a sculptural series of the mid but Rothman considered California his tureens in various Western styles—ar­ 1980s. A Los Angeles exhibition of work home base and, after a year, accepted a chaic, classical, baroque and modern. by German painter Max Beckman had senior ceramics faculty position at Cali­ For Rothman, this was an opportu­ reminded Rothman of the power of fornia State University in Fullerton. On nity to break away from Oriental influ­ myths and their effectiveness. His “Leda his return, he reopened his Los Angeles ences and find a contemporary in the Sky” series combines vessel and studio, which he kept until sculpture, reinterpreting the 1974, when he built a home amorous liaisons of the Roman and studio in the small seaside god Jupiter, who took the form community of Laguna Beach, of a swan to woo Leda, the not far from the university. queen of Sparta. The swan’s In 1970, Peter Mitchell, a wings encompass and caress a graduate student, had ques­ nude female figure, a return to tioned Rothman about why clay some of the ideas within the has to shrink, setting in motion earlier “Sky Pots” and “Central another ahead-of-its-time Park” series. project. Rothman didn’t know In the “You Choose” sculp­ the answer. So he talked to ture series begun in 1989, Roth- chemists and researched the con­ man’s imagery is very direct. cept until he had developed Commenting on political and “zero shrinkage clay.” social upheavals of the late 1980s In 1974, Rothman earned a and early ’90s, he gives these doctorate, exploring through an crises to a middle-class Every­ “Inscape” series, a way of floating man. In “Whoops,” a jeans-clad landscape (clouds, birds) above figure has inadvertendy dumped pyramidal platforms 2 to 4 feet toxic waste on himself. “Mess­ in height and width. To further ing ourselves up,” as Rothman cantilever these organic forms expressed it, is also an element into space, Rothman used high- in other sculptures of this series. temperature, constant-duty steel Rothman’s irony also hits the as an armature. “Ferro ceram­ mark in such sculptures as ics,” as he called it, offered a “Over the Edge, ”56 inches in height, thrown and “Caught,” which depicts a new approach to supporting any handbuilt, fired to Cone 04—01, brushed with acrylics. young person riding a descend­ kind of form in clay. Inspired ing graph line, burdened by the by science-fiction writer Arthur Clarke’s American form. The baroque gener­ weight of the Capitol building on his book, 2001: A Space Odyssey; Rothman ated the most interest, perhaps because back; as well as in “Over the Edge,” a so named his sculpture of 1974—75, as of its acceptance of outlandish attach­ similar figure in sneakers, balancing pre­ a tribute to Clarke’s emphasis on break­ ments. An Americana tureen sports the cariously on a surfboard as he juggles a ing away from conventional thinking. American flag and a noble eagle. Other bank or savings and loan building on In “Coming Through” (1974), a se­ attachments owe a debt to the monu­ his shoulders. ries that continued the use of nonclay mental boar’s head, turkey and duck This latest direction for his work is a materials, steel rods became an exterior tureens of the 18th century. Some tu­ new response to changes in our culture, element to articulate space. Loops of reens supported wiggling fish or just but the content (as in his sculptures of steel encircled crude ceramic figures bal­ their fins; others featured fluttering the 1960s) continues to question and ancing tentatively on earthlike mounds. birds, exaggerated looped handles and challenge the viewer. For Rothman, the Small, irregular clumps of clay clung to feet. On still others, Rothman barely artist’s role is clear: “Anyone who chooses the steel orbits as though these were suppressed a figurative impulse by hint­ to create an object from its conception planets not yet rounded by millennia of ing at female buttocks and breasts. Us­ to its completion assumes responsibil­ encircling the sun. able but not utilitarian, combining ity for what it is and what it does.” A Right: “Coming Through #1," 36 inches in height, shrinkage clay and steel (ferro ceramics), fired to Cone 3.

Far right: “Ritual Vessel, ” approximately 20 inches in height, thrown and handbuilt tureen; shown in the Campbell Soup Company exhibition of1976.

“On the Outside Only #1, ” 8 feet in height (plus base), handbuilt from a perlite sculpture body over a removable armature, by Jerry Rothman.

A Ceramics Monthly Portfolio November 1992 61 Letters Continued from page 8

decided that they would like to enter the dialogue. John Dennison, Omaha

I’m writing in response to Yoko Ono’s mid-February performance at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. How can CM condone someone destroying another artist’s work and calling it perfor­ mance art? I consider it vandalism. As an artist, I hated finding out that museums now condone violent destruction of art. What next? Should we destroy a Van Gogh because we grieve over his being gone from this earth? I hope someone stops this senseless abuse of art before it goes any further. Rebecca Smith

I doubt that the creator of the vase that Yoko Ono destroyed made the piece to be broken. Yoko Ono was selfish to destroy something that somebody else created. She didn’t only take that vase away from the art lovers of today, but of the future. It did not matter whether she “owned” the vase or not; it belonged to everybody. Lise Winne’s idea [September Letters] that a vase would end up broken anyway does not always hold true. How many statues and bowls have survived through centuries? Perhaps the porcelain vase Yoko Ono de­ stroyed would have been one of these. We’ll never know now, will we? Shannon Bailey

She may be famous, and she may have been John Lennon’s wife, but that doesn’t give her the right to play god with art. Every­ one has to deal with the loss of loved ones. If an average American attempted to destroy a piece of artwork at the Whitney, he or she would probably be arrested. What makes Yoko Ono so special? Dustin Logeman

I think that the reason why Yoko Ono broke the vase was to prove a point. She wanted to prove that nothing lasts forever, referring to her best friend’s death. People don’t last forever; neither do pots. This is a symbol of her love. Wendy Heye

I feel that there is a lot of jealousy in­ volved in the controversy over Yoko Ono’s performance that included the smashing of a vase as its focal point. Many of the responses previously printed convey an attitude that says, “They would not allow me to do a similar performance, so why was she allowed to?” These people must realize that it was not a case of pointless violence. There was deeper meaning involved, a greater purpose than to

62 CERAMICS MONTHLY just destroy. If Ono has the contacts and influence to permit expressing herself in this style, it should not be a mode for criticism. Questions concerning her “right” to destroy a piece of art seem less relevant. If the piece were her own, then few would doubt that right. Even if it were not her own, the artist who created it gave up control over it when it left her or his possession. It is sadden­ ing when something we see as beautiful or valuable is destroyed, but it is inevitable. Art is what it is perceived as being, and using one form to aid another should further open the minds of people, not let them be narrowed because of a few stubborn impressions of what “real” art is. Monica Lehn

In regard to Yoko Ono’s performance: it has caused a lot of controversy, as CM well knows. In my opinion, she had the right to do whatever she wanted to do with some­ thing she owned, no matter how much someone else liked it. I enjoy making and selling the pottery I make. A lot of people like the pottery I make, but if someone bought it from me and wanted to destroy it, I would see no problem with that at all. Amell Station

I think Ms. Ono’s destruction of the pottery was uncalled for. It just doesn’t make sense to purchase a piece of art just to destroy it. No one person should have the right to destroy someone else’s art. By printing this article, CM seems to agree with Ms. Ono’s philosophy; it’s too bad the magazine has such little regard for a work of art. Sara Erps

Do newspapers seem to condone or agree with war just because they print articles about it? Ceramics Monthly neither stated its sup­ port nor disapproval of Yoko Ono s actions at the Whitney; instead, like the specialized news service we are, we reported the event and raised some questions for readers to consider. Obviously they did!—Ed.

More on Electric Firing Why is it that much of CM’s focus is on gas-fired, reduction work, rather than more balanced coverage that includes electric oxidation? Kent Farr, Indianapolis

Thrilled with the Ugly...Not I am particularly drawn to potters’ works that are beautiful and functional. Why is everyone so thrilled with the grotesque and ugly work, e.g., torn, punctured, klunky, gruntlike things? I realize “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” but wish someone would explain why this stuff is so wonderful to so many. I’d like to try to understand it. Margaret Sheldon, Mason, Mich.

November 1992 63 Lafayette Art Gallery, 700 Lee Ave., Lafayette 70501. Call for Entries January 2, 1993 entry deadline Exhibitions, Fairs, Festivals and Sales Ames, Iowa “Year of the Craft: Octagon’s Clay and Fiber Exhibition” (March 7-April 25, 1993). Juried from slides. Entry fee: $35 for 1-3 entries. Clay juror: Paul Dresang, professor of ceramics, International Exhibitions Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Cash awards. For entry form, send #10 SASE to Year of the November 13 entry deadline Craft Exhibition, Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Sacramento, California One- to four-person ex­ Douglas Avenue, Ames 50010. hibitions (1993-94). Juried from up to 10 slides. January 4, 1993 entry deadline Entry fee: $10. Awards: $50 honorarium to each Gatlinburg, 7ennessee“Pattern: New Form, New accepted artist. For prospectus, send SASE to Exhibi­ Function” (February 26-May 15, 1993). Juried tion Screening, Matrix Gallery, 17251 Street, Sacra­ from slides. Entry fee: $18 for up to 3 works. Juror: mento 95814; or telephone (916) 441-4818. Clare Verstegen, surface designer/assistant profes­ November 28 entry deadline sor, School of Art, Arizona State University, Tempe. Faenza, Italy “48th International Ceramic Art For prospectus, contact Arrowmont School of Arts Competition” (September-October 1993). Juried and Crafts, Box 567, Gatlinburg 37738; or tele­ from 3 slides. Awards: Premio Faenza, purchase phone (615) 436-5860. prize worth 20,000,000 lire (approximately January 8, 1993 entry deadline US$16,000); purchase prizes worth 5,000,000 lire Milwaukee, Wisconsin “Folk Art” (March 12- (approximately US$4000); and exclusively for art­ April 16,1993). Juried from slides. For information ists under 35, purchase prizes worth 2,000,000 lire or prospectus, contact A. Houberbocken, 230 West (approximately US$1600); plus honorary awards. Wells Street, Suite 202, Milwaukee 53203; or tele­ Contact the International Ceramic Art Competi­ phone (414) 276-6002. tion, Via Risorgimento, 3, Faenza 48018; or tele­ January 10, 1993 entry deadline phone (546) 621 111 or fax (546) 621 554. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada “Fireworks 1993” December 1 entry deadline (May 25-31,1993, touring through 1995), open to Auckland, New Zealand “Fletcher Challenge clay/glass artists living in Canada. Juried from up to Ceramics Award” (May 28-June 26, 1993). Juried 2 slides per entry; up to 3 entries. Fee: Can$10 per from up to 3 slides. Awards: Premier Award, work plus (for nonmembers) Can$53.50 member­ NZ$10,000 (approximately US$5400); plus 5 ship fee for Fusion, Ontario Clay and Glass Associa­ Awards of Merit, NZ$2000 each (approximately tion. Purchase awards up to Can$4000. Contact US$1080). No entry fee. Contact Fletcher Chal­ Carolynne Pynn-T rudeau, 223 Glebe Ave., Ottawa, lenge Ceramics Award, Box 33-1425 Takapuna, Ontario K1S 2C8; or telephone (613) 233-9455. Auckland; or telephone (64) 96 30 85 81 or (64) 94 January 11, 1993 entry deadline 45 88 31. New Haven, Connecticut“NewCeramics” (April 2-May 22, 1993). Juried from slides. Juror: Val National Exhibitions Cushing, head of the ceramics division, Alfred Uni­ versity. Entry fee: $ 15 for up to 3 pieces; limit of 9 November 10 entry deadline slides. Awards: $1000. For prospectus, send SASE to University Park, Pennsylvania “Holiday Orna­ Creative Arts Workshop, Gallery Director, 80 ment Juried Sale and Exhibition” (November-De- Audubon Street, New Haven 06510. cember). Juried from actual work. Fee: $ 10 for up to Columbus, “Contemporary Works of Faith 5 ornaments. Award: one commission to create ’93” (March 7-April 4, 1993). Juried from 2 slides “Special Limited Edition Ornament.” For entry per entry; up to 3 entries. Fee: $20; Liturgical Art form, send SASE to Catherine H. Zangrilli, Friends Guild of Ohio members, $14. Jurors: H. Daniel of the Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State, Univer­ Butts III, director, Mansfield Art Center; and Judith sity Park 16802; or telephone (814) 865-7672. Lucas, curator, Skirball Museum-Cincinnati branch, November 11 entry deadline Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Reli­ Milwaukee, Wisconsin “Fifth Annual Teapot gion. Awards: approximately $2000 in prizes and Show” (January 15-February 26, 1993). Juried purchase awards. For prospectus, contact Anita from slides. For information or prospectus, contact Miller, 215 East Selby, Worthington, Ohio 43085; A. Houberbocken, 230 W. Wells St., Suite 202, or telephone (614) 847-1027. Milwaukee 53203; or telephone (414) 276-6002. January 16, 1993 entry deadline December 1 entry deadline Wichita, Kansas “Art Show at the Dog Show” Minot, North Dakota “16th Annual National (March 1-April 11, 1993), open to art incorporat­ Juried Exhibition” (March 7-April 18, 1993). Ju­ ing dog imagery; includes a separate category for ried from slides. Fee: $7 per slide; minimum of 2, ceramics. Juried from slides. Fee: $20 for up to 3 maximum of 6. Merit and/or purchase awards. entries. Awards: over $7000. For prospectus, con­ Contact Judith Allen, Minot Art Association, Box tact Joe Miller, 11301 West 37th North, Wichita 325, Minot 58702; or telephone (701) 838-4445. 67205; or telephone (316) 722-6181, evenings. December 11 entry deadline January 24, 1993 entry deadline Lafayette, Louisiana “Lafayette Art Association Syracuse, New York “The 29th Ceramic Na­ Annual Juried Art Competition of Original Two- tional” (opens May 21, 1993). Juried from slides. and Three-Dimensional Art” (March 9-April 8, For prospectus and entry form, contact C. N. Pro­ 1993). Juried from slides. Awards: over $5000. spectus, Everson Museum of Art, 401 Harrison Juror: Clint Willour, curator, Galveston Art Center. Street, Syracuse 13202. For prospectus, send #10 SASE to J. K. Sommer, February 15, 1993 entry deadline Lancaster, Pennsylvania “First Annual Strictly Send announcements of juried exhibitions, fairs, Functional Pottery National” (May 2-June 12, festivals and sales at least four months before the 1993). Juried from slides. Juror: Jack Troy. Fee: 1 event’s entry deadline (add one month for listings in entry, $10; 2, $15; 3, $20. Cash and purchase July and two months for those in August) to Call for awards. For prospectus, send #10 SASE to Market House Craft Center, Pennsylvania Guild of Crafts­ Entries, Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, Colum­ men, Box 552, Lancaster 17603; or telephone (717) bus, Ohio 43212; or telephone (614) 488-8236. 295-1500. Fax announcements to (614) 488-4561. Regional February 24, 1993 entry deadline exhibitions must be open to more than one state. Milwaukee, Wisconsin “Vessels” (April 30-June

64 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 65 Call for Entries ter, 1515 Jersey, Quincy 62301; or telephone (217) 223-5900. January 23, 1993 entry deadline New Britain, Connecticut “Clay Today” (Febru­ 11, 1993). Juried from slides. For information or ary 7-27, 1993), open to ceramists living in the prospectus, contact A. Houberbocken, 230 West Northeast. Juried from works hand delivered Janu­ Wells Street, Suite 202, Milwaukee 53203; or tele­ ary 22, 3-7 P.M., or 23, 12—4 P.M. Juror: Walter phone (414) 276-6002. Hall. Awards. For prospectus, send #10 SASE to March 12, 1993 entry deadline “Clay Today,” Art League of New Britain, 30 Cedar Tempe, Arizona “Tempe Tea Party” (May 21- Street, New Britain 06052. July 18,1993). Juried from slides. Entry fee: $15 for January 25, 1993 entry deadline up to 5 works; maximum of 15 slides. Awards: Pittsfield, Massachusetts “The Domestic Object: $500-$ 1000 minimum. For prospectus, send self- Articles for Everyday Living” (March 13-May 2, addressed mailing label and stamp to Tempe Arts 1993, the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield; July 10— Center, Box 549, Tempe 85280; or telephone (602) August 21, 1993, Worcester Center for Crafts; and 968-0888. a third show in autumn); open to residents of New March 19, 1993 entry deadline England, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Mary­ University Park, Pennsylvania “Crafts National land or Pennsylvania. Juried from up to 2 slides per 27” (June 6-July 25,1993). Juried from slides. Fee: work; up to 3 works. Entry fee: $ 10. For prospectus, $20 for 3 entries. Juror: Joanne Rapp, founder and send SASE to Domestic, Worcester Center for Crafts, director, Joanne Rapp Gallery/The Hand and the 25 Sagamore Road, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605; Spirit, Scottsdale, Arizona. Awards: $3000. For or telephone (508) 753-8183. prospectus, send SASE to Crafts National 27, Zoller Gallery, 102 Visual Arts Building, Penn State Uni­ Fairs, Festivals and Sales versity, University Park 16802; or telephone (814) 865-0444. January 4, 1993 entry deadline March 26, 1993 entry deadline Islamorada, Florida “Islamorada’s 14th Annual Lincoln, California “Feats of Clay VI” (May 22- Rain Barrel Arts Festival” (March 20-21, 1993). June 26, 1993). Juried from slides. Fee: $10 per Juried from slides. Booth fee: $95 for a 10x10-foot entry; up to 3 entries. Works should not exceed 24 space. Contact Rain Barrel Arts Festival, 86700 inches. Juror: Patti Warashina. Awards: Over $9000 Overseas Highway, Islamorada 33036; or telephone in place, merit and purchase awards. Send SASE to (305) 852-3084. Lincoln Arts, Box 1166, Lincoln 95648; or tele­ January 15, 1993 entry deadline phone (916) 645-9713. Santa Monica, California “Contemporary Crafts April 2, 1993 entry deadline Market” (June 11-13,1993 and/or November 5-7, Rockford, Illinois “2x2x2” (April 30-June 4, 1993). Juried from 5 slides or photos and resume. 1993), open to all media under 2 inches, excluding Entry fee: $15 for one or both shows. Booth fee: frame or base. Juried from actual work. Entry fee: $280-$840, fora 10x5- to 15x10-footspace. Con­ $ 15 for up to 3 works. For prospectus, send SASE to tact Roy Helms or Chris Andrews, Directors, 1142 2x2x2, Gallery Ten, 514 East State Street, Rockford Auahi Street, Suite 2820, Honolulu, Hawaii 96814; 61104; or telephone (815) 229-5333. or telephone (808) 422-7362. April 21, 1993 entry deadline Gaithersburg, Maryland“Spring Arts and Crafts Milwaukee, Wisconsin “Over the Edge...Again” Fair” (April 16-18, 1993); “Autumn Crafts Festi­ (June 25-August 13, 1993). Juried from slides. For val” (November 19-21,1993) and/or “Winter Crafts information or prospectus, contact A. Houber­ Festival” (December 10-12, 1993). Juried from 5 bocken, 230 West Wells Street, Suite 202, Milwau­ slides, including 1 of booth display. Booth fees vary. kee 53203; or telephone (414) 276-6002. No commissions. For application, send 3 (29Street Art Quincy, Illinois “43rd Annual Quad State Juried Festival” (June 12-13, 1993). Juried from 5 slides Exhibition” (March 28-May 3, 1993), open to plus 1 of display. Cash awards. Contact Joyce Saxon, artists living in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa or Missouri. Old Town Chamber of Commerce, 1543 North Awards: $3000 cash, solo show and other awards. Wells Street, Chicago 60610; or telephone (312) For prospectus, send 4x9 SASE to Quincy Art Cen­ 951-6106.

66 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 67 Suggestions of the clay. About three days later, pour out From Readers the water. The clay will be ready for pug- milling or cut-and-slam wedging. I used this system at a local college on 2500 pounds of clay that had been like a rock for ten Coat Hanger Shelf Lifters years.—Bruce Robinson, Carlsbad, N.M. Two “rebent” coat hangers make great lifters to remove warm (300°F or less) shelvesConsistent Slices from a top-loading electric kiln. Slide the Slabs of consistent thickness (tiles, neri- newly bent part between the shelf and the wallkomi elements, etc.) can be quickly produced using a cutting wire, board and sheets of paper. Start by securing a cutting wire to a flat board. The slab thickness can be readily ad­ justed by inserting spacers at both ends of the wire—pencils work well—the taller the spac­ ers, the thicker the slab cut. Place a piece of paper on the board to one side of the cutting wire, and lay the clay on the paper, which will act as a non-stick surface that slides easily when the clay is pushed through the wire cutter. While each cut re­ quires fresh paper, recycled paper is always of the kiln, then adjust to lift vertically. Of available free around the house/studio.— course, the hangers must be aligned to bal­ Butch Holden, Bemidji, Minn. ance the weight of the shelf, and the kiln should be unplugged.—-Jerry Caplan, Pitts­ Minimal Glaze Dipping burgh Have you ever opened the bucket contain­ ing your favorite glaze only to find there is not Sectioning Circular Designs quite enough to dunk that last piece ofbisque- My mother’s junk pile was the source of aware? Try slipping the piece into a plastic bag, useful decorating tool—part of an old dart then pushing it into a bucketful of wet sand or board. The metal ring attachment that marked the scoring sections on the board was easily removed and now serves as a guide for sec­ tioning circular designs.—Mary Hasson, Co­ lumbia Falls, Mont.

Flexible Stamps To make flexible stamps for those hard- to-reach places, use liquid latex. It can be purchased at stores selling Halloween or the­ atrical makeup. Just apply it to any textured surface that you would like to duplicate. I use grapefruit and cantaloupe peelings. Spread on a thick layer, let dry, then peel offyour new stamp.—Mary McClung, Belington, W.Va. sawdust. Wiggle it around to give about ½- Glaze Applicators inch clearance, then lift it out, leaving a hole Liquid laundry detergent bottles with drip-lined with the plastic bag. Partially fill the bag proof spouts are excellent for pouring glazes.with glaze. Push the piece into the center, The largest sizes even allow glazing very largetrying not to touch the sides. Lift out care­ pieces with a single, uniform application.— fully.—Linda Johnson, Pleasant Shade, Tenn. David Sickinger, Dover, Ohio Dollars for Your Ideas Reclaiming Hard Clay Ceramics Monthly pays $10for each sugges­ Plastic bags will keep a prepared clay bodytion published; submissions are welcome indi­ moist for a long time, but not indefinitely. vidually or in quantity. Include an illustration The following describes the best system I haveor photo to accompany your suggestion and we ever used to reclaim hard porcelain or stone­ will pay $10 more if we use it. Mail ideas to ware: Leave the clay in the plastic bag. Set in Suggestions, Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, any watertight container taller than the clay. Columbus, Ohio 43212; or fax to (614) 488- Fill the container with water. Open the bag 4561. Sorry, but we can’t acknowledge or return and tuck one side of the plastic below the topunused items.

68 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 69 Kempler; at Wheeler Seidel Gallery, 129 Prince Calendar Street, Soho. November 3-21 Bill Shillalies, wood- and gas-fired Conferences, Exhibitions, Fairs, Workshops works; at 14 Sculptors Gallery, 164 Mercer Street. and Other Events to Attend November 10—December 5Adrian Saxe. December 8— January 2, 1993 Ah Leon, Yixing teapots; at Garth Clark Gallery, 24 West 57th Street. Oklahoma, Norman through November 20 Chris Conferences Arensdorf, wood-fired pots; at Firehouse Art Cen­ ter, 444 South Flood. California, San Diego March24—27,1993NCECA Oregon, Portland November 5-December 5 Robert annual conference. Contact Regina Brown, Box Sunday; at Itchy Fingers Gallery, 720 Northwest 1677, Bandon, Oregon 97411. 23rd Avenue. Florida, Saint Petersburg January 15—17, 1993 Pennsylvania, Harrisburg through December5Sc ott “41st Florida Craftsmen Exhibition and Confer­ Jones, ceramic wall platters and mixed-media frames; ence” will include workshops by Eddie Dominguez at the Art Association of Harrisburg, 21 N. Front St. and Byron Temple. Keynote speaker/exhibition Pennsylvania, Philadelphia through February 1993 curator: Jane Kessler, director of Curator’s Forum, Arnold Zimmerman, outdoor installation of 4 large- Charlotte, North Carolina. For further information scale sculptures; in Arco Park, next to Haviland Hall, contact the Florida Craftsmen, 235 Third Street, University of the Arts. South, Saint Petersburg 33701; or telephone (813) November 6-29Sandi Pierantozzi, “Hand to Earth: 821-7391. Textures in Clay”; and Martha Winston; at the Clay Washington, Seattle February 4—6, 1993 “College Studio, 139 North Second Street. Art Association Annual Conference.” Contact CAA, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh through December 2 275 Seventh Avenue, New York, New York 10001; Martha Wittstruck, sculpture. December 4—January or telephone (212) 691-1051. 27, 1993Jack Troy, stoneware and porcelain; at the Clay Place, 5416 Walnut Street. International Conferences Utah, Salt Lake City through November 30 Kerri Buxton, “Vessels from the Journal Series”; at Utah Australia, Adelaide July 11-17,1993 “7th National Designer Crafts Gallery, 38 West 200 South. Ceramics Conference: Celebrating the Maker.” Washington, Ellensburg through November ^Rich­ Registration fee: Aus$305 (approximately US$218)/ ard Fairbanks, “American Potter”; at Sarah Spurgeon students, Aus$ 190 (approximately US$ 135) before Gallery, Central Washington University. April 1, 1993; Aus$320 (approximately US$230)/ Washington, Tacoma November 21—January 16, students, Aus$205 (approximately US$147) after 1993 Richard Fairbanks, “American Potter”; at April 1, 1993. For further information contact the Tacoma Art Museum, 1123 Pacific Avenue. Registrar, 7th National Ceramics Conference, Box Wyoming, Cheyenne November 20—January 11, 234, Stepney, South Australia 5069; or telephone 1993 Carolyn Palmer Wagner; at Wyoming State (08) 410 1822, national; or (61) 8 410 1822, Museum, Barrett Building, 22nd and Central. international. Group Ceramics Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions Arizona, Phoenix November 10-29 “Arizona Clay California, Davis through November 29 Arthur 25th Annual Juried Exhibition”; at the Shemer Art Gonzalez, “At Heart Level,” sculpture, paintings Center, 5005 East Camelback. and works on paper; at John Natsoulas Gallery, 140 Arizona, Tempe November 20-January 10, 1993 F Street. “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Functional and Non­ California, Los Angeles November 7—December 2 functional Ceramics,” juried national; at Tempe Roseline Delisle; at Garth Clark Gallery, 170 South Arts Center, Mill Avenue and First Street. La Brea Avenue. Arizona, Tucson through November 22 “Creative California, San Francisco November 5-28 Tony Clays: American Art Pottery from the New Orleans Hepburn, sculpture. December 3—January 2, 1993 Museum of Art”; at the T ucson Museum of Art, 140 Annette Corcoran, figurative teapots; at Dorothy North Main. Weiss Gallery, 256 Sutter Street. D.C., Washington November 17-December 8 Colorado, Denver through November 7 Mark “Bridge of Fire: Two Potters East and West,” works Zamantakis, wood-fired stoneware and porcelain; at by Takashi Nakazato and Malcolm Wright; at Japan the Clay Pigeon, 601 Ogden Street. Information and Cultural Center, Lafayette Center Florida, Bell eair November 3—30 Janice Strawder, III, 1155 21st Street, Northwest. artist-in-residence; at the Pilcher Gallery, Florida Illinois, Chicago through November 15 “Thrown Gulf Coast Art Center, 222 Ponce de Leon Blvd. and Altered,” exhibition of works by Sarah Coote, Michigan, Detroit through November 13 Ruth Josh DeWeese, Kathryn Finnerty, Annette Siffin Duckworth, sculpture; at Pewabic Pottery, 10125 and David Wright; at Lill Street, 1021 W. Lill St. East Jefferson. through December 1 Sculpture by Beth Changstrom Michigan, Farmington Hills November 7—28“I}z- and Peter Hayes; at Schneider-Bluhm-Loeb Gallery, mons + Sirens,” collaborative work by Raymon 230 West Superior Street. Elozua and Micheline Gingras; at Habatat/Shaw through January31,1993“Soviet Propaganda Plates Gallery, 32255 Northwestern Highway, #25. from the Tuber Collection”; at the Art Institute of Minnesota, Duluth through January 4,1993Glenn Chicago, Michigan Avenue at Adams Street. Nelson; at the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Louisiana, Alexandria December 12—February 14, Minnesota-Duluth, 10 University Drive. 1993 “Creative Clays: American Art Pottery from Nevada, Incline Village through November 6Angela the New Orleans Museum of Art”; at the Alexandria Beguhl, clay with mixed media; at Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, 933 Main Street. College, Lake Tahoe Art Gallery, 800 College Drive. Massachusetts, Newburyport November 19—De­ New York, New York through November 6 Diane cember 8 “For the Wall,” Northshore Clayworks juried exhibition; at the Firehouse Art Center, Mar­ Send announcements of conferences, exhibitions, juried ket Square. fairs, workshops and other events at least two months Michigan, Detroit November 21-January 2, 1993 before the month of opening (add one month for listings in “Holiday Invitational”; at Pewabic Pottery, 10125 July and two months for those in August) to Calendar, East Jefferson. Ceramics Monthly, Box 12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212; Michigan, Dexter November 8—December 30 “Out or telephone (614) 488-8236. Fax announcements to of Clay”; at Farrington-Keith Creative Arts Center, (614)488-4561. 8099 Main Street. Continued

70 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 71 Calendar

Michigan, Royal Oak December 5-January 2, 1993 Exhibition of works by Carol Roorbach and Chris Staley; at Swidler Gallery, 308 West Fourth Street. Minnesota, Saint Paul through November 13 “Vin­ tage Collections,” exhibition highlighting unique and bizarre works from the 1930s to the 1950s; at the Northern Clay Center, 2375 University Ave., W. Missouri, Kansas City December 18—February l4 y 1993 “Rookwood Pottery: The Glorious Gamble”; at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak Street. New Mexico, Santa Fe November 27-December 7 “Magyar Keramica,” exhibition of Hungarian folk pottery; at Clay Angel Gallery, 125 Lincoln Avenue. New York, Alfred through November #“5x7:1992,” works chosen by 7 ceramists—Robert Arneson, Karen Karnes, Warren MacKenzie, Jim Melchert, RobertTurner, Peter Voulkos and Betty Woodman. Each artist selected 5 contemporary or historical pieces of personal significance; at the Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Harder Hall. New York, New York through November 7“Con­ temporary Japanese Ceramics”; at Garth Clark Gal­ lery, 24 West 57th Street. New York, Rochester through November 22 “Little People of the Earth: Ceramic Figures from Ancient America”; at Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, 500 University Avenue. North Carolina, Charlotte through February 28, 1993 “In Prayse of Potts: A Tribute to Dorothy and Walter Auman”; at the Mint Museum of Art, 2730 Randolph Road. North Carolina, Raleigh through November 15 “North Carolina Clay 1992,” works by 75 artists; at Foundations Gallery, Visual Arts Center, North Carolina State University. Oregon, Ashland November 27—December 7“Mag­ yar Keramica,” exhibition of Hungarian folk pot­ tery; at Clay Angel Gallery, 111 East Main Street. Oregon, Bend through November 6“ 1992 National Ceramic Invitational”; at Sunbird Gallery, 916 Northwest Wall Street. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh November 6—December 30 “Clay for Collectors: Cups and Bowls,” includes works by Bennett Bean, Bill Farrell, Ron Kovatch, Warren MacKenzie and more; at the Clay Place, 5416 Walnut Street. Texas, Houston through November 7 “Death of a Debate: Craft vs. Fine Art,” local ceramists. Novem­ ber 14-January 9, 1993 “A Better Class of Mud- slinging,” with ceramics by Judy Adams, Barbara Hillsman, Monti Mayrend and Michael Unger; at Foelber Gallery, 706 Richmond. Washington, Seattle through February 1993Works by Patty Detzer, John Downs, Margaret Ford, Larry Halvorsen, John Harris, Anne Hirondelle, Jim Kraft, Debra Norby, Geoffrey Pagen, David Shaner and Patti Warashina; at the Sea-Tac International Air­ port, Main Concourse.

Ceramics in Multimedia Exhibitions Alabama, Birmingham through November 6 Four- person exhibition including raku by Harry Naka- moto. November 12-December24“Christmas Show”; at Maralyn Wilson Gallery, 2010 Cahaba Road. Arizona, Mesa through November 18“Empty Bowls.” December 1-23 “T able T rappings”; at Galeria Mesa, Mesa Arts Center, 155 North Center Street. Arizona, Scottsdale through November30“Judaica,” Jewish ceremonial objects. November 5-30 Two- person exhibition featuring ceramic sculpture by Amara Geffen; at Joanne Rapp Gallery/The Hand and the Spirit, 4222 North Marshall Way. Arizona, Tempe December 11—January 31, 1993 “Face to Face: Traditional and Contemporary Masks”; at the Tempe Arts Center, Mill Avenue and First Street.

72 CERAMICS MONTHLY Arizona, Tucsonthrough November /“Figuratively Speaking,” with ceramics by Lori Faye Bock, Peter Chartrand, Toni Soderstrom and Hilarey Walker. November 21—January4,1993“T reasures, T oys and Trinkets,” with ceramics by Jan Ekhardt Butler, Julianne Harvey and Eilene Sky; at Obsidian Gal­ lery, Saint Philips Plaza, 4340 North Campbell Avenue, Suite #90. Arkansas, Little Rockthrough December 6 “Native American Tradition.” December 6-27“20th Toys Designed by Artists Exhibition”; at the Arkansas Arts Center, Ninth and Commerce Streets. California, DavisNovember28—December27“ Gal­ lery Artists’ Christmas Exhibition”; at John Natsoulas Gallery, 140 F Street. California, La JollaNovember 14-December 31 “Holidays”; at La Jolla Gallery Eight, 7464 Girard Avenue. California, Los Angelesthrough January 31, 1993 “Native America: Reflecting Contemporary Reali­ ties”; at the Craft and Folk Art Museum, 6067 Wilshire Boulevard. November 5-January 24, 1993 “Art of the Persian Courts: Selections from the Art and History Trust”; at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard. California, Sacramentothrough November 11 Four- person show featuring ceramics by Miriam Davis and Paul Dipasqua. November 11-December5Four- person show with ceramics by Michael Hough and Eric Wyss, and Katherine Keefer; at Michael Himovitz Gallery, 1020 Tenth Street. November 25—December 2^“Women Artists ’92”; at Matrix Gallery, 1725 I St. California, San Franciscothrough January 3, 1993 “Brushstrokes,” 60 examples of ceramics, paintings and jades from China and Japan; at the Asian Art Museum, Golden Gate Park. California, Walnut CreekNovember 5-January 16, 1993 Exhibition including clay vessels by Kelly Torche; at Banaker Gallery, 1373 Locust Street. Connecticut, GuilfordNovember 7-December 24 “Holiday Festival of Crafts”; at Guilford Handcrafts, 411 Church Street. Connecticut, MiddletownNovember28-December 13 “The Wesleyan Potters 37th Annual Exhibit and Sale”; at Wesleyan Potters Craft Center, 350 South Main Street (Route 17). Connecticut, New HavenNovember 9—December 24 “Celebration of American Crafts”; at Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon Street. D.C., Washingtonthrough November 75Two-per­ son exhibition featuring ceramics by Val Cushing. November 22-December 31 “Casseroles, Cookie Jars and Other Covered Containers”; at the Farrell Col­ lection, 2633 Connecticut Avenue, Northwest. through January 10, 1993 “American Craft: The Nation’s Collection”; at the Renwick Gallery, Smith­ sonian Institution. Georgia, Athensthrough November 22 “Artists and Artisans of Florence: Works from the Horne Mu­ seum”; at the Georgia Museum of Art, the Univer­ sity of Georgia. Georgia, Atlantathrough December 31 “An Ameri­ can Sampler of Folk Expressions, 1700-1920”; at the High Museum of Art, Georgia-Pacific Center, 133 Peachtree Street, Northeast. Illinois, Chicagothrough January 3, 1993 “The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes”; at the Art Institute of Chicago, Michigan Avenue at Adams Street. Illinois, La GrangeNovember 20-December 24“ hin- sans Yule Love”; at Aardvark Gallery, 6 S. Sixth Ave. Indiana, Indianapolisthrough March 14,1993“A£- rican, South Pacific and Pre-Columbian Art from Private Indianapolis Collections”; at the Indianapo­ lis Museum of Art, 1200 W. 38th St. Iowa, Sioux CityNovember 7—December 27“ 51st Annual Juried Competitive Exhibition”; at Sioux City Art Center, 513 Nebraska Street. Louisiana, New OrleansNovember 15-January 10,

November 1992 73 Calendar Massachusetts, Ipswich November 14-December31 or Sexual Fantasy”; at the University Art Gallery, “Holiday Traditions”; at Ocmulgee Pottery and Williams Hall, New Mexico State University. Gallery, 263 High Street. New York, Brooklyn through December 13 “Bio- Massachusetts, Northampton through November morphicism and Organic Abstraction in 20th-Cen­ 1993 “Islamic Art and Patronage: Treasures from 15 “Political Art.” November 21-January 3, 1993 tury Decorative Arts”; at the Brooklyn Museum, Kuwait”; at New Orleans Museum of Art, City Park. “Animal Life”; at Ferrin Gallery, 179 Main Street. 200 Eastern Parkway. Maine, Portland through December 6 “Art that Michigan, Midland November 2—28 “34th Annual New York, Buffalo through November 29“ Craft Art: Works: The Decorative Arts of the Eighties, Made in Mid-Michigan Exhibition”; at the Midland Center Western New York, 1992”; at the Burchfield Art America”; at Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress for the Arts, 1801 West Saint Andrews. Center, Rockwell Hall, State University College at Square. Michigan, Royal Oak November 7-28 “The Expres­ Buffalo, 1300 Elmwood Avenue. Massachusetts, Boston through November 6 “Two sive Teapot/Steeping Matters: The Metal Tea In­ New York, New York through November 8 “More Cultures: Spanish and Indian Art of the Southwest”; fuser,” works by 60 ceramists and 25 metalsmiths; at than One: Contemporary Studio Production,” with at the Society of Arts and Crafts, 101 Arch Street. Swidler Gallery, 308 West Fourth Street. ceramics by Stanley Mace Andersen, Marek Cecula, through November 7 “Two Cultures: Spanish and New Jersey, Millburn through November 7“ 10 for Dorothy Hafner, Warren MacKenzie, J ames Makins Indian Art of the Southwest”; at the Society of Arts 10,” anniversary exhibition including ceramics by and Byron Temple. “Recent Acquisitions,” includ­ and Crafts, 175 Newbury Street. Karen Aumann and Mary Lou Higgins; at Sheila ing pinch pots by Roddy Reed; at the American Massachusetts, Cambridge through January 31,1993 Nussbaum Gallery, 358 Millburn Avenue. Craft Museum, 40 West 53rd Street. “The Arts of Korea”; at Arthur M. Sackler Museum, New Mexico, Las Cruces through November 20 New York, Piermont-on-Hudson November 15— 485 Broadway. “The Human Figure in Indian Art: Cultural Reality December 31 “Through the Eyes of a Child”; at America House, 466 Piermont Avenue. North Carolina, Charlotte through January 3,1993 “Service in Style: Soup Tureens from the Campbell Museum Collection,” exhibition of 18th-century soup tureens, plates, ladles and ecuelles; at the Mint Museum of Art, 2730 Randolph Road. North Carolina, Winston-Salem through December 6 “New Outsider,” including ceramic sculpture by Billy Ray Hussey; at Southeastern Center for Con­ temporary Art, 750 Marguerite Drive. Ohio, Cleveland through November 8 “Gruener Collection of Pre-Columbian Art,” includes West Mexican ceramic sculpture, through January 3,1993 “Asian Autumn: Later Korean Art”; at the Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Boulevard. November 27-December 31 “Holiday Collectible Show”; at American Crafts Gallery, Sylvia Ullman, 13010 Larchmere. Oklahoma, Norman November 28—December 31 “Annual Firehouse Christmas Fair and Gift Gal­ lery”; at the Firehouse Art Center, 444 South Flood. Oklahoma, Tulsa December 13-February 14, 1993 “Objects and Drawings: From the Sanford M. and Diane Besser Collection”; at the Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 South Rockford Road. Oregon, Corvallis November 20-January 3, 1993 “Winterlight”; at Corvallis Arts Center, 700 South­ west Madison. Oregon, Portland November5-December24“Ho\i- day Gift Show”; at Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, 8245 Southwest Barnes Road. Pennsylvania, Bethlehem through November 8“ Head to Toes: Hats, Buttons, Belts, Purses and Shoes”; at Luckenbach Mill Gallery, 459 Old York Road. Pennsylvania, Haverford through November 72 “An­ nual Open Juried Craft Exhibition”; at Main Line Center of the Arts, Old Buck Rd. and Lancaster Ave. Pennsylvania, Jenkintown through March 1994 “Ancient Sources: Contemporary Forms,” sculpture garden exhibition with an adobe structure by Nicho­ las Kripal; at Abington Art Center, 515 Meeting­ house Road. Pennsylvania, Philadelphia November 17—Decem­ ber 30 “Contemporary Artifacts”; at the National Museum of American Jewish History, 55 North Fifth Street. Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh through November 8 “The Bridge Series II,” includes ceramics by Amy Sabrina; at the Society for Contemporary Crafts, 2100 Smallman Street. Texas, Fort Worth through January 31, 7.9.93 “Egypt’s Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World”; at the Kimbell Art Museum, 3333 Camp Bowie Blvd. Washington, Seattle December 3-January 3, 1993 Exhibition of works with ceramic sculpture by Mar­ garet Ford; at Foster/White Gallery, Pioneer Square. Wisconsin, M ilwaukee Novem ber 6-January 8,1993 “A. Houberbocken Holiday”; at A. Houberbocken, 230 West Wells, Suite 202. Wisconsin, Sheboygan through November 15 “The Invention ofChildhood”; at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 608 New York Avenue. Continued

74 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 75 Ohio, Cincinnati November27—29“Crafts Affair”; Calendar at the Cincinnati Convention Center, downtown. Ohio, Columbus December 3—6 “Winterfair”; at the Multi-Purpose Building, Ohio State Fairgrounds. Fairs, Festivals and Sales Oklahoma, Norman December 5—6 “Annual Fire- house Christmas Fair”; at the Firehouse Art Center, Alabama, Birmingham November21—22“Hands at 444 South Flood. Work”; at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Pennsylvania, Cheltenham November 18-22“Craft Arizona, Phoenix November28—29“Outdoor Pot­ Show”; at Cheltenham Center for the Arts, 439 tery Fair”; at the Shemer Art Center, 5005 East Ashbourne Road. Camelback. Pennsylvania, Philadelphia November 5-8 “The California, Sacramento November 7-8 “16th An­ Philadelphia Craft Show”; at the Philadelphia Civic nual Pot Show,” Sacramento potters; at the Country Center, 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard. Club Plaza Mall, corner of Watt and El Camino. Pennsylvania, Wallingford December 4—6“ Art and California, Santa Monica November 6-8 “Contem­ Utility in Clay,” the Potters Guild holiday sale; at the porary Crafts Market”; at the Santa Monica Civic Community Art Center, 414 Plush Mill Road. Auditorium, 1855 Main Street at Pico Boulevard. Pennsylvania, Wyomissing November 7-8 “Read­ California, Sierra Madre November 20-22 “Foot­ ing/Berks Chapter Penns)dvania Guild of Crafts­ hill Creative Arts Group Annual Sale”; at the Foot­ men 43rd Annual Holiday Show”; at the Berks hill Creative Arts Group, 108 N. Baldwin Ave. campus of Penn State University. Colorado, Boulder November 5—8 “Boulder Potters Texas, Ingram November 7 “Fall Festival of the Guild Fall Sale”; at the Armory Building, 4750 Arts”; at the Hill Country Arts Foundation. North Broadway. Virginia, Richmond November 20-22 “17th An­ Connecticut, Brookfield November 20-December nual Richmond Craft and Design Show”; at the 2^“Holiday Craft Sale”; at Brookfield Craft Center, Richmond Centre for Conventions and Exhibition, Route 25. downtown. Connecticut, Norwalk November 20—December 24 November 30-December 24 “Holiday Invitational”; “Holiday Craft Sale”; at Brookfield Craft Center, at the Hand Workshop, Virginia Center for the 127 Washington Street. Craft Arts, 1812 West Main Street. Connecticut, Westport November2l-22“^lestport Creative Arts Festival”; at Staples High School, Workshops North Avenue. D.C., Washington November20-22“Fifth Annual Arizona, Mesa November 14—15 “The Public Art Washington Crafts Expo”; at Exhibit Hall A and B, Experience: A Woman’s Perspective,” developing Sheraton Washington Hotel, 2660 Woodley Road drawings/models, working with designers/construc­ at Connecticut Avenue, Northwest. tion crews, with Marilyn Zwak. No fee. Preregistra­ Illinois, Winnetka November 6-8 “Third Annual tion required; limited enrollment. Contact Linda Winnetka Modernism Show”; at the Winnetka Speranza, Mesa Community College, Art Dept., Community House, 620 Lincoln Street. 1833 W. Southern Ave., Mesa85202;or telephone Indiana, Indianapolis November 2#-22“Best of the (602) 461 -7539 or 461 -7524. Season”; at the Exposition Hall, Indiana State Fair­ Arizona, Phoenix November 11 “Public Art and grounds. Women,” lecture with Carole Drachler. No fee. Maryland, Gaithersburg November 20-22 “Au­ Contact Linda Speranza, Mesa Community Col­ tumn Crafts Festival.” December 11—13 “Winter lege, Art Dept., 1833 W. Southern Ave., Mesa Crafts Festival”; atMontgomery County Fairgrounds. 85202; or telephone (602) 461-7539 or 461-7524. Michigan, Midland November21-22 “Holiday Art California, Concow January 4—11, 1993 “Wood- Fair”; at the Midland Art Council, 1801 West Saint fire Workshop,” includes firing a 200-cubic-foot Andrews. kiln for 5 days with Nolan Babin. All skill levels. Fee: Minnesota, Saint Paul November 20—December 23 $250; includes materials, use of studio and equip­ “Holiday Market”; at Northern Clay Center, 2375 ment, firing and lodging for 11 days; or $150; University Avenue, West. includes firing and lodging for 7 days (participants New Jersey, Demarest December 5-6“ 18th Annual must provide bisque- or greenware). Contact Nolan Pottery Show and Sale”; at the Old Church Cultural Babin, 13191 Mullen Way, Oroville, California Center, 561 Piermont Road. 95965; or telephone (916) 534-9137. New Jersey, Millburn December 4—31 “Holiday California, El Portal November 14—15 “Autumn Showcase 1992”; at Sheila Nussbaum Gallery, 358 Yosemite Clay Workshop” with Lynette Yetter. Millburn Avenue. Works were made in an October session; will be fired New Jersey, Woodcliff Lake November 7-11 “Art in this session. (November workshop can be taken of Our Time”; at Temple Emanuel. alone.) Fee: $40-$ 100. Accommodations: $8-$65, New Mexico, Albuquerque November 12-15“20th camping/cabins. Contact Lynette Yetter, 1034 A Annual Southwest Arts and Crafts Festival”; at New Page Street, San Francisco, California 94117; or Mexico State Fairgrounds, Manuellujan Building. telephone (415) 552-9545. New York, Herkimer November 14—15 “17th An­ California, Santa Ana November 14 “Throwing nual Herkimer County Arts and Crafts Fair”; at Utilitarian Forms” with Neil Moss. Fee: $35. Con­ Herkimer County Community College campus, tact Patrick Crabb, Rancho Santiago College, 17th Reservoir Road. and Bristol Streets, Santa Ana 92706; or telephone New York, New York December 4—6, 11-13 and (714) 564-5613. 18-20 “21st Annual WBAI Holiday Crafts Fair”; at California, Wilmington November21 “Raku Work­ Columbia University, Ferris Booth Hall, Broadway shop” with Patrick Crabb. Fee: $35. For further at 115 Street. information contact Stella Vognar, Harbor College New York, Saratoga Springs November 20-22 Art Gallery, Los Angeles Harbor College, 1111 “Third Annual Empire State Crafts Alliance at Syra­ Figueroa Place, Wilmington 90744; or telephone cuse Fine Crafts Market”; at the Jefferson Street (310) 522-8474 or (310) 831-5121. Armory. Connecticut, Brookfield November 14—15 “Large North Carolina, Greenville November 20-22 Scale/Small Modules for Ceramics” with Marylyn “Southeast Juried Artists’ Exhibition and Sale”; at Dintenfass. Contact the Brookfield Craft Center, the Greenville Museum of Art, 802 S. Evans St. Box 122, Brookfield 06804; or telephone (203) North Carolina, Marion December 5 “Appalachian 775-4526 or in Norwalk, (203) 853-6155. Potters Market”; at McDowell High School. Florida, Belleair December 11—12 “Majolica Ce­ Ohio, Beachwood November 7—9 “19th Annual ramic Workshop” with artist-in-residence Janice Fine Art and Craft Exhibition”; at the Agnon School, Strawder. Fee: $65; Florida Gulf Coast Art Center 26500 Shaker Boulevard. member, $50. Contact the Florida Gulf Coast Art

76 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 77 Calendar

Center, 222 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Belleair 34616; or telephone (813) 584-8634. Illinois, Edwardsville November 19—20 A session with Jeff Schlanger. No fee. Contact Southern Illi­ nois University at Edwardsville, Department of Art and Design, Box 1774, Edwardsville 62026; or telephone (618) 692-3146. Massachusetts, Hadley November 7“Surface Deco­ ration” with Lee Segal. Fee: $35; prepaid, $30. Contact Amherst Potters Supply, 47 East Street, Hadley 01035; or telephone (413) 586-4507. New Jersey, Oceanville December 17 “Made for Use: Ceramics in the Eastern and Western Tradi­ tions,” director’s lecture series. Contact the Noyes Museum, Lily Lake Road, Oceanville 08231; or telephone (609) 652-8848. New York, New York November 7-8 “Shining Clay...” hands-on workshop with Paulus Berensohn. Fee: $100, includes materials. Contact Greenwich House Pottery, 27 Barrow Street, New York 10014; or telephone Gail Saari (212) 242-4106. New York, Rochester December 2-3 Slide discus- sion/demonstration on Yixing teapot construction, and history of Chinese teapots, Yixing factory and kilns with Ah Leon. Registration deadline: Novem­ ber 30. Fee: $40; students/seniors, $25. Contact Mark Lyons, Genesee Pottery, 713 Monroe Ave., Rochester 14607; telephone (716) 271-5183. New York, Troy December 5 Slide discussion/dem­ onstration on pinching large shapes, problems with large shapes, sectioning forms vertically and hori­ zontally, with Elsbeth Woody. Fee: $35. Contact Hudson River Clay Factory, Potter’s Co-op, 621 River St., Troy 12180; telephone (518) 274-2722. North Carolina, Brasstown December 6-19“ Wood- fire Special” with Marcia Bugg. Contact John C. Campbell Folk School, Route 1, Box 14-A, Brasstown 28902; or telephone (800) 562-2440. Oregon, Portland November 7A session with Rus­ sian sculptor Vladimir Tsivin. Contact Georgies Ceramic and Clay Company, 756 Northeast Lombard, Portland 97211; or telephone (503) 283- 1353 or (800) 999-2529. November 14-15 “Pictorial Vessels” with Akio Takamori. Fee: $90. Contact the Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, 8245 Southwest Barnes Road, Portland 97225; or telephone (503) 297-5544. Texas, Fort Worth November 14—15 Hands-on raku workshop with Doris Miller. Fee: $50. Partici­ pants should bring bisqueware or purchase at work­ shop. Contact Texas Pottery and Sculpture Guild, Carole Standridge, 4913 Kessler Road, Fort Worth 76114; or telephone (817) 624-1667. Texas, Houston November 6-7 Slide lecture/dem- onstration with Tom Coleman. Fee: $30, includes lunch. Preregistration required; limited space. Con­ tact Roy Hanscom, Art Department, North Harris College, 2700 W. W. Thorne Drive, Houston 77073; or telephone (713) 443-5609. Virginia, Richmond December 4—6 “Smokeless Raku” with Jerry Caplan. Fee: $110. Contact the Hand Workshop, 1812 West Main Street, Rich­ mond 23220; or telephone (804) 353-0094. International Events Canada, Nova Scotia, Halifax November 27-De- cember /^Alexandra McCurdy, “From Beneath the Covers”; at Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery. Canada, Ontario, Burlington November 28—Janu­ ary 3, 1993 Ann Roberts, “Harvest, Coming Full Circle”; at the Burlington Cultural Centre, 425 Brock Avenue. Canada, Ontario, Thorncliffe Park November 20— 22 “Christmas Show and Sale”; at the Potter’s Studio, 2 Thorncliffe Park Drive, Unit 16. Canada, Ontario, Toronto through January 10,

78 CERAMICS MONTHLY 1993 “Figures from Life: Porcelain Sculpture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art”; at George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, 111 Queen’s Park. November 21 “Decoration Workshop” with John Glick. Fee: Can$40 (approximately US$34); seniors or members of R.O.M., O.C.C. or Fusion, Can$37 (approximately US$31); students, Can$15 (approximately US$13). Contact Sue Jefferies, Pro­ grams Coordinator, George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, 111 Queen’s Park, Toronto M5S 2C7; or telephone (416) 586-5797 or 586-8080. December 4—6 “Tenth Annual Christmas Show and Sale”; at Woodlawn Pottery Studio, 80 Wood- lawn Avenue, East. England, Chichester November 13—15 “Throwing ana Turning” with Alison Sandeman. November 29-December 4“General Pottery” with John Gunn, includes glazing and firing. December 4-6 “Master Potter Series: Studio Ceramics” with Peter Lane. December 11-13 “Throwing and Turning” with John Gunn. Contact the College Office, West Dean College, West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 OQZ; or telephone Singleton 0243 63 301. England, London through November 7Ceramics by Martin Smith. November 6-December 24 “Christ­ mas Show”; at Contemporary Applied Arts, 43 Earlham Street, Covent Garden. November 4—27 Exhibition of works by Ewen Henderson; at Galerie Besson, 15 Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street. November 11 “Contemporary Ceramics I,” auction of works by Leach, Cardew, Hamada, others. No­ vember 12 “Contemporary Ceramics II,” auction of works by various potters; and “Contemporary Ce­ ramics III,” auction of works by Lucie Rie and Hans Coper. November 20 Auction of “European Ceram­ ics”; at Bonhams, Montpelier Street, Knightsbridge. December 1—January 8, 1993 “A Celebration of British Contemporary Ceramics,” works by nine ceramists, including Svend Bayer, Ewen Henderson, Janet Leach and Po Chap Yeap; at Godfrey Far Eastern Art, 104 Mount Street. England, Oxford November 2-December 2 Exhibi­ tion of ceramics by Michael and Sheila Casson. December 7-January 6,1993Exhibition of ceramics by James Campbell; at Oxford Gallery, 23 High St. France, Paris November 18-Decemt her 17 Three- person exhibition with daywork by A. and E. Leperlier; at Galerie Capazza, 8, rue Eugene Varlin. Germany, Arnbruck through December 15 Exibition of ceramics by Gunther Gotte and Fritz Rossmann; at the Kunst and Form Galerie, Zellertalstrasse 13. Germany, Hohr-Grenzhausen through December 6 “Deutsche Keramik 92”; at Keramikmuseum Wester- wald, 5430 Montabaur. Germany, Verden November 1-22Two-person ex­ hibition featuring ceramics by Margrit Westphal; at Verdener Heimatmuseum, Untere Strasse 13. Italy, Montelupo Fiorentino November 7—2.9 Exhi­ bition of works by Gifford Myers, “Sculpture: Big World, Little Palaces and Remarks”; at Museo Montelupo. Japan, Shigaraki through November 23“Exhibition of Contemporary Italian Ceramic Art”; at the Mu­ seum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki Ce­ ramic Cultural Park, 2188-7, Chokushi. Mexico, Oaxaca January 4-12, 1993 “Ceramics: From the Zapotec Tracfition and Beyond” work­ shop with Miquel Audifred. Contact Horizons, 374 Old Montague Road, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002; or telephone (413) 549-4841. Netherlands, Deventer November 29—December 28 Exhibition of ceramics by Johan Broekema; at Kunst and Keramiek, Korte Assenstraat 15. Netherlands, Eindhoven through November 15 Ex­ hibition of ceramics by Yvette Lardinois; at de Krabbedans, Stratumseind 32. Netherlands, Oosterbeek through November 22 “Jubilaums Ausstellung: Marianna Franken and Hans de Jong.” November 29-December 20 “Ungarischer Traum/Magyar Alom,” sculpture and functional ware; at Galerie Amphora, Van Oudenallenstraat 3.

November 1992 79 Video

Paul Soldner Thrown and Altered Clay In this video tour of his recent retrospec­ tive exhibition, Paul Soldner talks about the development of his work, from thrown stone­ ware to asymmetrical sculpture balanced on a small base. After World War II, he recalls, there was a general change in attitude toward handmade ware. “Craftspeople began to be appreciated for what they could do with their hands, [which] reflected skills, personality, ideas and aesthetic judgment.” Soon after moving to California to study with Peter Voulkos in the late 1950s, Soldner began making a series of “tall pots”—thrown forms limited in height only by the size of the largest available kiln. He continued working on this series after earning an M.F.A. and accepting a position as a teacher at Scripps College in Claremont, but thought it impor­ tant to produce functional ware as examples for the students as well. The first major change in his work came after the serendipitous discovery of what has since become known as “American raku.” Exploring the potential of postfiring reduc­ tion opened several new avenues for surface enhancement—notably the “halo effect” caused by a fluxed slip’s resistance of carbon penetration at the edges. Moving the platter from the table to the wall allowed Soldner to let go of the round format, which in turn led to another change in direction—thrown-and-flattened wall pieces. “You should never be too worried about destroying something in order to push it further than you thought was possible.” Even though the thrown form is flattened, “the energy is still there in the folds and convolutions.” What’s important, he explains, is deciding what to add and subtract. From the gallery, the video takes the audi­ ence to Aspen, Colorado, where Soldner dem­ onstrates his current approach to addition and subtraction, assembling an asymmetrical sculpture from thrown and slab-built ele­ ments. After bisquing, the form is brushed with terra sigillatas, burnished and loaded into the kiln for low-fire fuming. Back at the exhibition, Soldner talks about recent work in translating clay forms to cast metal. For the moment, he says, “it’s interest­ ing and pleasurable to explore something I don’t know too much about....The most important things in art are not the answers, but the questions, the curiosity and the dis­ covery.” 37 minutes. Available as VHS video- cassette. $39.95. Crystal Productions, Box 2159, Glenview, Illinois 60025; (800) 255-8629.

80 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 81 Q In October, CMpublished a photo of a beau­ the amount you want to work with at that time; Questions tiful, blue, Egyptian-paste sphinx from an exhibi­ keep the rest of the batch dry until use. Answered by the CM Technical Staff tion at the Cleveland (Ohio) Museum of Art. I Initially, the proper working consistency is would like to try making some sculptures with something like library paste, but as you handle Egyptian paste. Could you provide a recipe for a the body, it will continue to dry out, sometimes blue self-glazing clay body like that used for the requiring repeated additions of a few drops of Q I have been mechanically pressing very non­ sphinx? Also, could you tell how to work with this water to maintain useful working properties. plastic clay bodies, testing additions of nonclay type of clay?—D.H. When finished forming an object, set it materials to make them more plastic. I know that A commonly used recipe is the following aside to dry slowly on a nonporous surface. Do various plasticizers have been developed\ tested (given in standard percent by weight): not allow anything to come in contact with its and used commercially, so my question is: Do you surface during the drying process, as this is the know what ceramics industries use as plasticiz­ Traditional Egyptian Paste critical stage when soluble salts will be carried ers?—D.R (Cone 08-04) out of the body to the surface through capillary In addition to standard materials, such as Bentonite...... 28.57% action. As the water evaporates, the salts build bentonite and Veegum T, common industrialBicarbonate of Soda...... 14.29 up evenly until enough of a deposit forms to plasticizers are beeswax, butyl stearate, diethylFlint ...... 57.14 constitute the flux portion of a glaze. phthalate, polyethylene glycol or various light 100.00% On firing, the salt deposit reacts with the oils (mineral or vegetable). These compoundsAdd: Copper Carbonate...... 3.57% underlying flint and bentonite mixture to form may be used individually or in combination, A similar recipe lists ingredients by volume;a complete glaze (alumina, silica and flux), emulsified or not. They may be a complete cups should be measured level: colored by the strong turquoise blue of copper source of clay body liquid, just part of the liquid in an alkaline glass environment. Because an Traditional Egyptian Paste content (in concert with water) or added dry to Egyptian-paste object is dried on a nonporous (Cone 08-04) achieve appropriate plasticity for mechanical surface, there is no evaporation from the under­ Bentonite...... 8 cups pressing. side and no salt will be deposited there, making Bicarbonate of Soda...... 4 Be aware, however, that some plasticizers, it possible to fire without stilts. Flint...... 8 such as shredded or pelletized beeswax, require the heat of pressing to activate. 20 cups Add: Copper Carbonate...... 1 cup Subscribers’ questions are welcome and those of gen­ As with all chemical problem solving in eral interest will be answered in this column. Due to ceramics, users should familiarize themselves In formulating either recipe, the dry ingre­volume, letters may not be answered personally. Ad­ with the properties and hazards of new materi­dients are thoroughly mixed together, then putdress the Technical Staff, Ceramics Monthly, Box als before experimenting with them. through an 80-mesh screen. Add water only to12448, Columbus, Ohio 43212.

82 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 83 84 CERAMICS MONTHLY back into some steelwork too, back into fully stack the great kiln with the fragile The Clay War the elegant days when the finest axes and ware. The child was old enough to learn Continued from page 48 cutlery in this country were made by men useful things and to be truly helpful, and like him and his father out of precious bar what needed to be done in the house or more do you need to do than you’ve done?”steel imported from England. George pottery was now finished, so Ephron fired He meant with Ephron’s life, but he and Barton remembered what it was to hunger the kiln more often and sold all he fired, Ephron defined that differendy. at night for substances fit to compel. He and when the thinly crusted creeks that Ephron opened the box he had carried found now that he had lost nothing of his threaded the vast pine barrens broke back with him on the train up from Trenton skill, only the urgency to use it, and Ephroninto spring water, he had a dollar more in and took out of it a large bottle, as round Gherst had given him some of that from his hand than he needed, although still as it is possible to imagine roundness to be.his own great store. For two months Georgemuch less than he owed. But better than At the precise top pole of it a neck and rim Barton welded and blazed, tempering and money, the small store of oxides and pig­ rose like an exquisite but defiant pronounce­annealing through days and nights, and on ments and colorants that he had ground ment, smaller than fingers could have the 15th of November, when the sandy out of the pebbles and rocks and dirt had formed but yet asserting that fingers had. road between them was frozen tight, the accumulated to a usable amount. Soon he Ephron put the bottle on the desk in front two strong men drew the heavy machine would stain and glaze and draw upon his of Kollowitz. Kollowitz could only smile toto Ephron’s on a stoneboat behind a pair ofpottery with earthly crystals none had ever see it, though it made him feel much more, borrowed drays. They skidded the mill into seen before. For even he, even after his the blood in his hot body lurch, the skin at place and Ephron poured the dry mix and most recent tests, could not predict exactly his temples tighten. water into the hopper. Then, as he turned what would happen in the kiln. But Ephron “I made two of these,” Ephron said. the heavy gearing that George Barton had Gherst knew enough to accept mystery as “Without the right amount of the ball clay made to mesh like a watch, all the sub­ a gift and not a challenge. I couldn’t have done it. With the ball clay I stances binded together and emerged at can make more, and bigger. So that’s why.”the gate as workable clay. George Barton This story will conclude in next month’s issue. But the bottle was sufficient argument for and Ephron and Fanny and the child, Excerpted from The Potters Companion, a itself. Kollowitz looked upon it and re­ Aerrie, all took a turn. Then they drank collection of ceramics-related fiction and es­ lented. strong tea and Fanny’s dandelion wine. A says compiled by studio potter Ron Larsen The other bottle was for George Barton,ceremony. (Canton, New York); reprinted with permis­ who had lent Ephron $50 toward the clay. The winter was again mild, and so there sion from the publisher; Park Street Press, a He also built Ephron a pug mill for mixing were days, even in February, when Ephron, division of Inner Traditions International, 1 his clays. Building it got George Barton with Fanny and Aerrie helping, could care­ Park Street, Rochester, Vermont 05767.

November 1992 85 Comment

Sex, Art and Rock n Roll by Paula Gustafson

In times like these, when art critics are Craft, the term we use for the process throwing themselves headlong down their of transforming natural materials into own semantic streams, its refreshing to useful or ceremonial or contemplative ob­ put aside art-world jargon and muse about jects, is as intrinsic to the human experi­ things that are what they are—things we ence as baking bread. Because it is so can experience for their own sake, with­ much a part of our lives, because every­ out explanations or justifications. one does it in one form or another, we For instance, the austere beauty of have never needed to define it by a spe­ 17th-century Bizen teabowls didn’t need cific set of words. In fact, until about a intellectual validation until art historians century ago, most artisans were illiterate. and critics began arguing about functional There was no need for reading or writing versus aesthetic objects. More recently, as texts when apprentices learned by doing. fine art museums and galleries discovered In the 1950s, when a number of uni­ that the “art” in Amish quilts, Macin­ versity ceramics and textiles departments tosh furniture and Maria Martinez pots were established, a language for craft be­ was worthy of their attention, we’ve been gan to be articulated. With crafts being treated to the placement of these objects taught as a “specialty” within the peda­ within the structure of art theory. gogical framework, and in the absence of Thankfully, since everyone is tired of literature other than anthropological the art/craft debate, academicians and crit­ books about “material culture” or “folk ics are now shifting their attention to art,” the academic community took up politically correct issues—female empow­ the task of delineating craft—at the same erment, racism, colonialism and various time denigrating it as a lesser art. other forms of social anxiety. This change During the past two decades, our com­ in focus takes the heat off many creative munications technologies have taken a artists who’ve quantum leap. been distinctly Widespread re­ uncomfortable Discussions about ceramic art couched liance on TV, trying to fit in the same terminology as that used video and com­ their work into puter screens someone else’s forflat painting have a lot in common has turned us doctrines. with Frank Zappa’s assessment of rock into a visually Colorful, up­ oriented soci­ beat ceramics music journalism—“by people who cant ety. Now, when are among vari­ write interviewing people who cant talk we see photos ous crafted ob­ or film, we as­ jects that do for people who cant read. ” sume that we not readily lend “know” what­ themselves to contemporary critical analy­ ever is being imaged, forgetting that sis, i.e., writings that analyze composition knowledge doesn’t always come through or form or iconography in terms of our eyes or that, as physical creatures with postmodernism or deconstructivism. In inner feelings, both the tactile and the fact, discussions about ceramic art couched emotional are equal, perhaps more valid, in the same terminology as that used for ways of “knowing.” flat painting have a lot in common with When we listen or dance to live music, Frank Zappa’s assessment of rock music we are free to experience the creative mo­ journalism—“by people who can’t write ment without simultaneously trying to interviewing people who can’t talk for figure out what it means. Creative mo­ people who can’t read.” ments, like spiritual revelations, are expe-

86 CERAMICS MONTHLY November 1992 87 Comment cratic materialization and become parts trators of taste, and if our physical and of a spatial arrangement categorized by emotional intelligence systems don’t cor­ style, school, period or whatever curato­ respond with the credos, then we are like rienced first hand. We feel them. After­ rial choice has been made. Moreover, the children who discover the pleasure zones, wards, we are at a loss to explain what we objects are often placed where we must but are told, “Don’t touch.” have felt. In fact, trying to put these expe­ look down on them, not at an egalitarian Children become adults when they re­ riences into words is about as tricky as eye level. alize they have a right not only to touch, asking, “Was it good for you?” Whether we are looking at a contem­ but to value the experience. If our intelli­ Like the videos and recordings that porary object or an artifact from some gence system is ambiguous, if we believe have become substitutes for live perfor­ one set of values but act upon another, we mances, we have unwittingly distanced If our intelligence system is can have faith in neither. ourselves from sharing in a synergistic It is appropriate to identify particular experience. (The exceptions to the rule ambiguous,if we believe one set objects by using contemporary art vo­ are, of course, the IMAX version of the of values but act upon another, cabulary, and to place them alongside Rolling Stones concert, and audience par­ other postmodern works of art in muse- ticipation in the long-running Rocky Hor­ we can have faith in neither ums/galleries. And let’s applaud the con­ ror Picture Show) tribution they make to modern art theory Even if we are very imaginative, photo long-lost civilization, we are not only de­ discourse. But we must caution ourselves images (two-dimensional reproductions nied a full experience but also coerced against assuming that all crafted objects, of three-dimensional reality) cannot con­ into accepting a value system devised by or even most art being made today, will vey weight, density, scale, the sensual quali­ museums in the 1800s to quantify and fit tidily into that dialectic—a dialectic ties of texture and surface, or evoke in us categorize “things.” that relies on intellectual validation. an emotional response. The urge to touch, to hold handmade None of us took up clay because it was Dealing with art via other media, we objects, is a universal response. Each is a good for our brains. We did it because it are in the same position as voyeurs— product of human ingenuity—hands, felt good. Or, as gonzo journalist Hunter relocating the experience, shifting the tac­ heart and head—for use or pleasure. An S. Thompson once wrote (in a different tile and emotional to a film editor or an untouchable object is a contradiction in context), “The third time I did it because art critic, allowing others to interpret what terms. of brain damage—and after that, well, I we feel. How art turns us on, what triggers our figured that anybody who was already When we attempt to view art objects receptors, is based on who we are and doomed to a life of crime and sin might ourselves, by going to a gallery or a mu­ what we already know. We verify our as well learn to love it.” seum and walking around, we again find sensations against our individual and col­ were involved in a mediated experience. lective cultural knowledge. If that knowl­ The author A frequent contributor to CM, Objects inside Plexiglas boxes, each iso­ edge is defective, if we have been led to free-lance critic!curator Paula Gustafron re­ lated on a pedestal, lose their idiosyn­ repeat certain credos enunciated by arbi­ sides in Vancouver British Columbia.

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