letting go, and why vessels are awesome.

It's wonderful to be able to make what you love. Period. It just is. But apparently there are problems too—like the separation anxiety I'm having as I send new pieces off to an exhibition or show, I'm finding it really hard to let go.

Chalice Series vessels, left to right: "Ich Dien (I Serve)", "Chalice #3", "Chalice #2 (Just Another Vessel". Handbuilt Southern Ice porcelain, underglaze, translucent glaze with encapsulated stains, ash glaze. Fired to cone 10 in oxidation. 2012.

Three of the new "Chalice Series" vessels I fired and glazed over New Year are now moving out into two summer shows: "Chalice #2, Just Another Vessel" will be part of the Alberta Craft Council summer exhibition "Shift. A Transformative State Of Mind" which opens July 14 in Edmonton; "Chalice #3" and "Ich Dien (I Serve)" will be available in Calgary at the Ruberto-Ostberg Gallery Show "Connections", opening this Friday June 15. These are handbuilt, labour-intensive pieces: they are slow art, inspired by ancient and ritualistic vessels—though the technology in that ultra-white porcelain, the fabulously stained glazes, and my computer-controlled kiln couldn't be more 21st century. I hope they find new homes because that will mean they have become meaningful to someone else.

We have a long history of needing and cherishing vessels, and I'm very happy to join the procession of potters, extending forward, who will continue to be inspired by the possibilities and provoked by the necessity of containing: food, flowers, ideas, love… Long live the vessel.

I remain mindful of a quote by the art historian and curator Edith Cargill:
“Show me someone who thinks the vessel is dead and right around coffee time I’ll show you a f###### hypocrite!”

P.S. As if by magic, or the Albert Craft Council newsletter, a link to a fabulous exhibition catalogue of ceramics for the table just appeared: "TableSpace" was presented at Alfred University in New York, Fall 2011. The introductory essay offers much to digest about the continued importance of functional ceramic vessels. And lots of really nice pictures. Congratulations to Alberta potter Sam Uhlick who was part of the show.

Comments

narrative jewellery: tales from the toolbox book launch

For every piece of jewellery I make there is a story. It can be simple, just a note on the “why?” that led to the forms and textures, or the feeling that I want to remember. Sometimes the single idea that could become a piece, conceived way before the act of making, can become so over-whelming that I need to write a whole new reality for the jewellery to exist within. That’s how it was for “Pull”, the first piece of jewellery in a body of work that became the ReFind Collection *. It caused me to look at materials in my home, especially the things that were routinely thrown away, very differently. It was like waking up to realize I just hadn’t been paying the right kind of attention to all the “stuff” in other areas of my life; realizing that maybe jewellery could be linked to something as obscure as industrial-scale food-processing and packaging—if I allowed my mind to receive the information, differently. I am very honoured that my necklace has been included in Mark Fenn’s new ...

will you...?

Artists write stories about their work all the time, and the greatest joy is when that story becomes important to another person. This project was about creating a piece of fan-art for a client (DP) based on their love of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter stories. DP approached Jeff de Boer because he needed to commission a very special golden snitch sculpture: the body would become an opening engagement ring-box. DP had a very special proposal in mind, and the snitch was to play a key part. Jeff and I do not usually make snitches. Jeff is a renowned metal artist and teacher, famous for creating armour for cats and mice , and collected world-wide. Jeff also has an ever-increasing body of large-scale public art projects (…with lots of news to come in 2016!). His web-site is a magical place, full of stories made real. I am an emerging metal and clay artist whom Jeff is mentoring - particularly in the skills of chasing and repoussé - and these skills were to be at the core of makin...

Artist talk on March 28, at North Mount Pleasant Art Centre, Calgary.

Excited to share I’ll be presenting an artist talk on March 28, 7pm, at North Mount Pleasant Art Centre, in Calgary. I started clay classes there in 1996, a year after I emigrated from England to Canada—it was that education and community that helped me develop the skills to set up my home studio. I’ll be diving into my process, doing some demos, and generally obsessing about all things clay (with a bit of metal sneaking in). Thank you to the Mount Pleasant Potters' Guild for the invitation--hope to see you there!

metal is clay

Search This Blog