For those new to this post and especially those just starting to throw (my sophomores and Cont. Ed. students, I would suggest you go to the earlier posts on centering, and throwing a cylinder. I will be posting some videos this semester as we get them produced. Looking forward to the year.
You might want to visit the Everson Museum in Syracuse very soon to see the David MacDonald exhibition. It comes down mid September. Seeing his pottery is worth the trip! While you are there go downstairs to view the permanent ceramic collection.
The once preeminent museum for American ceramics, I hope the recent clay exhibits (Ah Leon's "School Room" last spring and now David's) portend a return to the Everson's focus and support of the ceramic arts.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Rethinking the future
We will be looking at our offerings and possible workshop topics for the new year. Stay tuned...
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Turn, Turn, Turn
Most of us have a keen sense of the "present" and it's surroundings. We are programmed or taught to respond to the needs of the moment. In the present, we make adjustments in order to reach some predetermined goal or recall some unpleasant experience to avoid impending disaster.
We (anointed "leaders" excluded herein- their blinders a spoil of rank, so it seems) are also innately geared to grow stuff, the default setting for survival. The present in its full context (modern physics aside here, please) is a bridge from the past to the future. Without this sufficient (but not always necessary) structure for reasoning we are on a treadmill, not a path, with history too often repeated, progress stifled, and a pace toward entropy ramped.
We also have the mental tools to soften the rough edges of history, to help maintain our heading toward the future and progress. We acknowledge that growth and decline is the essence of life. It also gives it value and meaning.
Every season, every idea, every mark is infused with and defined by ineluctable movement. In some cases that movement, if drawn as a line, may well follow a "straight" course, a beginning to an end. Or it may return to meet itself in the gentlest way realizing the archetypical circle, the best of possibilities. Unfortunately, in the long run, the latter is hostage to the former.
The notion of a team- a complimentary, non-hierarchical concept is the most efficient, healthy path to growth. A team, however, is the most difficult model to "manage" as each member must choose a time to lead, a time to follow, a time to teach, a time to learn. It requires that the whole be greater than the parts, with each part remaining essential to the whole. It has many leaders, not one.
In our given time, we can at best hope to describe and move in a line that returns to itself, creating a shape that is a whole; a space that has a center. And though the edges of that shape may not always be fair, the space within is forever defined.
 |
| the circle |
Every season, every idea, every mark is infused with and defined by ineluctable movement. In some cases that movement, if drawn as a line, may well follow a "straight" course, a beginning to an end. Or it may return to meet itself in the gentlest way realizing the archetypical circle, the best of possibilities. Unfortunately, in the long run, the latter is hostage to the former.
The notion of a team- a complimentary, non-hierarchical concept is the most efficient, healthy path to growth. A team, however, is the most difficult model to "manage" as each member must choose a time to lead, a time to follow, a time to teach, a time to learn. It requires that the whole be greater than the parts, with each part remaining essential to the whole. It has many leaders, not one.
In our given time, we can at best hope to describe and move in a line that returns to itself, creating a shape that is a whole; a space that has a center. And though the edges of that shape may not always be fair, the space within is forever defined.
Friday, April 29, 2011
anagama update
9:47 pm- things are going smoothly. Nearing 1500˚ F in the back. Pizza and wings just arrived. Very hungry after the long day and a trip to the gym. We have split most of the "new" wood to smaller sticks. The midnight shift will have some markers to make; it is a good crew, so I am not worried...
Follow up:
We finished the firing around 6:00 pm the following evening. Actually, we fired it off twice. We reached ∆ 9 in the back of the chamber around 1:00 pm Saturday. Since the school was having a reception for new students, we kept a light stoking pattern to "show off" the firing, but lost considerable heat in the process. At 3:00 pm we decided to go for it again. With steady work and damper adjustments, we were able to regain the lost heat to bring the firing to an end. We completed the evening by firing off the salt kiln.
Then to the beer, chips and laughs "around the camp fire." A great week and a great finish to a harried, sometimes very frustrating semester, and a physically and mentally exhausting year.
It has been a great run...
Follow up:
We finished the firing around 6:00 pm the following evening. Actually, we fired it off twice. We reached ∆ 9 in the back of the chamber around 1:00 pm Saturday. Since the school was having a reception for new students, we kept a light stoking pattern to "show off" the firing, but lost considerable heat in the process. At 3:00 pm we decided to go for it again. With steady work and damper adjustments, we were able to regain the lost heat to bring the firing to an end. We completed the evening by firing off the salt kiln.
Then to the beer, chips and laughs "around the camp fire." A great week and a great finish to a harried, sometimes very frustrating semester, and a physically and mentally exhausting year.
It has been a great run...
Firing the Anagama
After a long winter's wait, we have finally loaded the wood kiln. We started the firing this am at 6:00 am. Vincent was the man. The word is that he couldn't find matches so he carried a flaming piece of wood through the studio that he ignited from one of the burners on the car kiln. We decided this Olympic style run to ignition was something only Vincent could pull off. Wish we had video.
It is 1:30 pm and we are at about 950˚ F in the rear of the chamber. Will keep posting and set up some images.
It is 1:30 pm and we are at about 950˚ F in the rear of the chamber. Will keep posting and set up some images.
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