ghost jugs

Have a look at Dorothy Filshie's work.

These are like the glamourous ghosts of jugs past- you can almost hear the ghostly ice cubes clicking in the Pimms as ethereal shapes in drop waisted dress, crinolines, and tuxedos flit around behind them.

Down in the Studio

I've been down in the studio working towards Christmas shows. It's hard to keep focused on the integrity of the drawing on the pots at this time of year.




When I look at the orders and see large numbers of one design I'm tempted to do a production line, but over the years I've found this approach just doesn't work for me. Every time I sit down at the wheel to throw or the desk to decorate I try to focus my mind on what I want the pot to communicate to the user- the curve of the belly and the foot standing perkily "like a woman in high heels" as an older wiser potter once said to me. Every pot is decorated with a drawing which is pretty much completed from start to finish as one drawing rather than brocken up into stages such as "all the orange bits now, all the green slashes now." When I'm drawing I try to keep in my mind the essence of what I'm conveying in marks- the grassiness of grass, how it grows, why thicker, big twigs look different, less flexible than the thin springy twigs used in the inside of the nest. Instead of thinking of these pieces as 20 paddock pots or 15 nest bowls I think of them as 20 drawings of paddocks and 15 separate drawings of nests.

the mystery of judging

Last week I went to the Gold Coast International Ceramic Awards. I had some work in the exhibition of finalists and this is a really good opportunity to see a slice of Australia's (only a couple of international entries) contemporary ceramics scene. The judge, Noel Frankham had created a beautiful exhibition in which you could clearly see his interest in porcelain. I also love porcelain and found the exhibition very inspiring. Some people have found this award to be too idiosyncratic because the prizes are awarded by only one judge not a panel. I quite like this, it is idiosyncratic but having one judge throws up really unusual choices at times and reflects personal preferences. In this world of panels and "unbiased" judgments I like the reflection of the personal in the Gold Coast Award, the judge is not forced to abandon their favorite in favour of the majority view. It makes a weird collection which, when we finally get to view the acquisitions from over the years may appear to be slightly uneven but I think the greatest collections in the world reflect the biases of the collectors rather than the majority view which can at times be a bit bland.

So... If I was judge this is what I would have chosen.
Julie Sheperd's wonderful work "City Dwellers"


(approx 50cm wide by 60cm high)


Julie says
"“There is no solitude in the world like that of the big city.” Quote from Kathleen Norris.

Although we live in close proximity to others who share the same physical structure, no one can share exactly what another person experiences, consequently we are ultimately alone in the world."

The juxtaposition of the screen printed illustrations from 19th century medical encylopaedia with the expressionistic brushstrokes create a dynamic movement across the piece which is illuminated and displayed on the wall. The grid like pattern of the boxes reference apartments or the compartmentalization of modern life. When we look in, we don't see the mundane but the mystery beneath the surface of reproduction, families , living together and the human condition.

Avital Sheffer (who's work heads this post) would have also been one of my winners. The work in the exhibition was not this particular piece but it was similar. Avital's work was so self-contained yet the earthenware body, decorative surface and low firing lent it a warmth and tactile appeal that contrasted to much of the other work in the show. Avital's work reminds me simultaneously of the human body, with it's soft skin-like texture and pages of old books so worn from the flicking of fingers that they have taken on a soft, almost slightly furry feel and a sepia colour. Both these works seem to contain the mystery of being human in an object.

windows

I've just discovered the work of American jeweller Judy Geib. (thanks to "Dear Ada" blog)

Her jewellery is a journey into the natural world. Abstractions of geographic and botanical phenomena made with jewels and metal, these pieces are presented in knitted boxes.




This is a such an inventive use of craft. I love it when crafted wares tap into wider concerns and cross over in their intentions and integrity into art. For me, the best crafted items are actually as thought-provoking and strong in their intentions as the best piece of art. Great craft is exposed to the rough and tumble of the real world and still takes the viewer out of themselves, through a little jewellery, ceramic, textile window giving a glimpse of a world beyond the mundane.

what holds us together

I discovered these great things at Origin Craft Fair in London. Unfortunately I did not go there but they have such an exciting website I felt like I was browsing stalls from my very own home in my pyjamas and cardigan.

Julie Haslam creates Domestic Bliss with her range of tea towels aprons and other linen things. I love the recipes







...but thought I'd also include the shopping list for a very special collector I know ...







Claire Coles stitches things. Wallpaper, cups and saucers and tables. Her art is fun and suprising but also makes me contemplate the world we live in, what holds us together. Somehow I don't find a stitched table incongruous but tender and touching.

beads, babychinos and blood oranges

f
The Queen Victoria Markets, Melbourne. Boreks, fresh, flopppy yeast pastry wrapped around a sour, salty feta, parsley and spinach filling. Sausages, goats cheese and blood oranges.



Craft Victoria. A warm welcome from the staff for an out- of-towner. Counter, the retail space is stuffed with treasures from Sandra Bowketts wonderfully spotty wares.




..to Hammer and Daisy owls and Dani M beads so matt and tactile I feel like eating them- hmmm back to the Queen Vic Markets....


Books For Cooks. Two huge rooms of cookbooks and food writing, big wooden tables make it easy to pull out a dozen flick through deliscious pictures. Next door Enoteca is really a wine shop with a bar in the front- their hot chocolate took me back to Les Deux Maggots in Paris, an experience I am always chasing. Fizzy D approved thouroughly of the Babychino and even though I half feel it's unbearably prententious she has so much fun eating them I can't stop sharing the coffee shop experience with her.

When I first moved to Brisbane from my small country town at the age of 17 I remember thinking "If I have to live in the city I'm going to be right in the middle of it and gulp up all it has to offer." It was a hard but great experience and developed my lifelong love of bookshops, movies, and meeting friends at cafes.

off to Melbourne

This will be the last blog for a few days as we are going to Melbourne- there will be heaps of exciting things when I get back!

I have been in the studio glazing and firing trying to get work finished to take down with me- Deadlines are so presssing and ceramics don't respond to speed. Over the years I've learnt to slow down at the expense of many a cracked pot. Luckily they find a second life in the garden.


This firing I've made a tangle of "nest" bowls which are headed for Salmon Galleries in Sydney. Another tangle of little nests can be seen in the Gold Coast Ceramic Art Awards which open on the 7th of October. A few years ago I won a prize at these awards and I was so suprised that when I went up to the judge I started crying! He was so suprised that he started crying too! I resisted the impulse to make an Oscar style "I'd like to thank my agent..." type speach and slunk back to Trevor who had a good position outside the door where the food came out.


Some poppies are part of the "Flowering Art" exhibtion at Pomme in Mt Martha. I'm really looking forward to visiting Sue and her wonderful regional gallery. As a fellow country mouse I love seeing contemporary craft get a showing in the regions.

signing off for now....
Shannon

To old age

The Garth Clark Gallery in New York is having a retrospective of American potter Beatrice Wood. This runs from the 12th of September to the 4th of November. Beatrice Wood lived a crazy life and potted her way into old age. This is a photo of her looking fabulous and tough behind the potters wheel as an old lady. I love seeing photos like this- I hope this is me when I am old.



This Beatrice Wood chalice is a celabratory item. There is a sense of upward movement and dynamics in this pot which makes me felling like standing and "Charging my glass".
"To old age, hard work feasts and good company!"
Cheers

craft guerilla hero

I have to write more about Alleghany Meadows who I mentioned yesterday and his fantastic Art-stream Gallery.

The Art-stream Gallery is an old Airstream caravan converted into a beautiful ceramics gallery. Through favours from friends, custom cabinet making and sheer imagination and wit Allegahany Meadows has created an American mini institution, Artstream travels around the country to farmers markets, universities and conferences bringing beautiful pottery to all sorts of unexpected places. To say Art-stream is an instititution denies the fact of it's clever unpredictablity. This is a subversion of the gallery system.
Allegahany Meadows is this weeks craft guerilla hero!

vessels

Vessels

"The water is wide
I must go o'er
But neither have
I wings to fly
Give me a boat
That can carry two
and both shall row
My love and I"
....an old spiritual about vessels





Alleghany Meadows, potter and craft guerilla. Has a mobile gallery in a dashing old Airstream caravan.



Elizabeth Robinson American potter says...
"My work is about the rituals, and the making, of domestic pottery. I think about objects, how we desire them, surrounding ourselves by stuff to compose the settings for our lives; how we use them"

The Golden Bowl

I have just finished a "Personal Reading Challenge" It was Henry James' "The Golden Bowl"- and it was really hard going. Sometimes I just like to read hard classics, when I get to the end I not only feel a sense of achievement but they are always thought provoking and rewarding.

I loved the themes in "The Golden Bowl" which are encapsulated in the metaphor of this strange golden bowl. It is not gold but crystal covered with gilt and has a strange fascination for some the main characters in the story. The golden bowl however has a fatal flaw ,and although it is not visible to the more discerning it is obvious that it is there.

In celebration of this book I'm introducing bowls I like. They are not gold and often contain a quality that in the perfection of industrial design would be considered flawed- I however, find them perfect and satisfying in their own way. As a metaphor in my life these bowls contain the rough and the smooth, they are comforting,rewarding and reveal unexpected subtelty with use...

Simon Reece, Australian potter. I drink tea from one of his cups everyday.











Ayumi Horie. Beautiful.
American potter

I thought of Italy at breakfast this morning.

I thought of Italy at breakfast this morning.

I've been making new series of pots based around medieval beasties. These pots are so much fun and have sprung out of my time in Italy last year when I did a week long master class with Marino Morretti in Umbria. (If this sounds idyllic, it totally was!)


It is amazing to me when I contemplate a world where people really did believe that beasties and creatures were living right beside them, sleeping under their beds and being harboured in the bodies of their spouse on the odd occasion. I sometimes believe that my spouse is harbouring a medieval beastie, it is the only logical explanation.

I have been very inspired by the 'Lutrell Psalter" a 14th century manuscript describing rural life in England. The British library has a great website with a section called "Turning the Pages". Here you can download the Lutrell Psalter and actually use your mouse to turn the pages of this incredible book. I really urge you to try this , it is not a boring computer nerd thing but a way for everyone to see rare manuscripts.




St Martin's Kirche in the tiny Swiss town of Zillis has a magnificent carved wooden Romanesque ceiling. With over fifty panels this ceiling tells the story of Christ complete with angels, monsters and demons.


One of the most inspiring things I have ever seen in the Piccolomini Library in the Duomo in Sienna, Italy. After walking through a forest of striped marble pillars in the nave the Piccolomini Library is an explosion of colour and trompe l'oeil frescoes painted by Pinturicchio in the 15th century.




The colours are so bright it could have been done yesterday and the walls are lined with ledges holding huge open medieval manuscipts.



A library full of ephemeral things such as books has managed to survive into the 21st century and still has the ability to inspire people who have seen just about everything in their imaginations "come to life" on a movie screen.

lyrics

Lyrics from music I've been listening to in the last week....

"I got to keep my eyes open
So I can see the Lord
I'm gonna watch the horizon
For a brand new Ford"

"Jesus Gonna be Here" Tom Waits sung by Pearly Black with Trevor Hart and John Rodgers last night at the Brewery in Brisbane.

"...so hush little baby don't you cry"
"Summertime" from Porgy and Bess sung by Trevor one morning

"Well who's gonna shoe your
pretty little foot
Who's gonna glove your hand
Who's gonna kiss your ruby red lips
And who's gonna be your man?"

"Ruben" the Be Good Tanyas during dinner.

"So grab your bucket grab your spade
We're heading down to Half Moon Bay"

"The Wine Song" The Cat Empire. Fizzy D's best dancing music.

"Oh you are in my blood like holy wine
Oh and you taste so bitter but you taste so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you
I could drink a case of you darling
And I would still be on my feet
Oh I'd still be on my feet"

Joni Mitchel "A Case of You" We listen to this all the time. It's from the "Blue" album.

"Raindrops on roses
and whiskers on kittens"

"My Favourite Things" The John Coltrane version not the Julie Andrews one. (although I love Julie Andrews)

walking towards, running away

I have just read in the newspaper that an exhibition of Giacometti sculpture is coming to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.
I first saw a Giacometti sculpture of a walking man years ago when an exhibition of works from the Guggenhiem came to Sydney. It is one of the art experiences I really remember. This sculpture was so dynamic. The thin man striding purposefully or desperately his energy was just bursting out of him. I thought this work captured the essence of movement and all its contradictions, escape, freedom, leaving , running towards.

We have to travel a long way in Australia to see original art. In my practice this has been a really important use of time and money. Seeing art in the flesh has a certain inexplicable power that is not available in images.



Today I am back in the studio for the first time since Sydney. Balancing motherhood and artistic output can be a very frustrating task- like trying to sleep under a blanket that is way too small! Having said that motherhood is also very inspiring. The work of Janis Mars Wunderlich captures this perfectly


. ..... and its a lot of fun!

chaos

So I went to Sydney, and got off the plane into a roaring torrent of liquid air. Crossing the road was like wading across rivers and there is always someone who takes special delight in driving through the puddles close to the curb and drenching the hapless pedestrians.

I waded my way through the park to Sussex St as promised and dried off with a comforting bowl of Pho. I love sitting in this Food Court as it is two storeys above street level. The window looks down on layer after layer of signs in clashing colours advertising everything from car rental to "unique quality gifts". The street level is crammed with shops selling dumplings ,groceries, jewellery, and unique quality gifts, and people are constantly walking across the road carrying strange things like huge piles of mosaic plates, or durian fruits. It reminded me that in our world of craft and design you can sometimes forget how vibrant and joyous chaos can be.

Sydney

I am going to Sydney tomorrow to see the Blueberry Fool (see the links to the left) and attend an opening of a new show called "Herbarium" of my work at Salmon Galleries.



The first thing I'll be doing when I get off the plane (apart from missing Fizzy D, the thought of it is breaking my heart already) is going to the Sussex Food Court on Sussex St and having a bowl of Pho. For those who haven't tried this delicious Vietnamese soup, it is made of special recipe stock and filled with fresh Thai basil, Vietnamese mint, noodles, chillies, lemon juice and thin strips of beef cut so finely they cook themselves in the boiling broth. YUM Yum!

I always feel like a total dag in Sydney. It's funny in Melbourne I feel like I'm quite well dressed. Over the years I've come to the conclusion that Sydney people have expensive, matching accessories, the caramel coloured hair matches the beige Prada handbag, matches the tiny sandals made of microscopic pieces of leather and air which match the perfectly tanned feet and pearly toenails- I can't possibly compete with this.



Although I will be taking my new/old op-shop find , a glo-mesh bag. Watch out girls!

Critical Thoughts

I've been thinking about art criticism lately. The way we talk about art as a community affects the way art is viewed in the wider community. This is especially true in Australia where art is often tucked away in galleries or a part of a festival rather than as say, in Italy or France where art is just jumping off every cornice and peering at you from amongst the Coca Cola signs and mopeds.


The Sculpture Garden at the Louvre, Paris

I recently heard this discussion on Radio National with Raphael Rubenstien the editor of Art in America. I realize that what I was thinking I hate about art criticism is not really art criticism at all but publicity written by either the artist or someone working for them. Rubenstien points out that there is very little true criticsm around but plenty of these promotional/bureaucratic blurbs. One of the highlights of my week is reading John Macdonald's criticism in the Sydney Morning Herald each Saturday. Macdonald illuminates the work he talks about, giving greater insight into the art.

I haven't read much of her work but Joan Chitister writes about a Canadian potter called Brother Thomas Benzanson- I find her wrtiting inspitring and beautiful. This is what she says about the role of the artist:
“Beauty, in other words, lifts life out of the anaesthetizing effects of the pedestrian and gives us reason for going on, for being, for ranging beyond our boundaries, for endeavouring always to be more than we are. It enables us to pause in time long enough to remember that some things are worth striving for, that some things are worth doing over and over again until they become their breathless selves...Beauty is a moment in time that must be captured so that the human heart can, in the midst of pain and despair, cling to the notion that that which is capable of bearing beauty is capable of bringing new life, is capable of pervading the world, is able by penetrating our own souls to penetrate the ugliness of a world awash in the cheap, the tawdry, the imitative, the excessive and the cruel.” (pp.11-12 Creation Out of Clay, Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1999)

tiny details

That delighful Blueberry Fool has alerted me to the Biomedical Images Awards. These images are amazing. I love seeing things about the details of life and you can't get much more detailed than this.

In a funny kind of way the excitement I feel about the biomedical images links in to the excitement I feel about handmade objects. Both of these strange esoteric disciplines are followed by artists who have become skilled technichians in thier own special fields. The handmade object and the biomedical image are both ways of letting busy, unintrested people see into the life we lead and ponder for a moment or two over its wierdness, and wonder.

This image is a stinging nettle.

Artists! Speak Up

Derek Jarman, filmaker, gay rights activist, writer and gardener, lived in a little fisherman's cottage on Dungeness, a lonely spur of land sticking out to sea in southern England. HIV positive and eventually dying of AIDs Jarman created an amazing life-affirming garden out of the rocky shale surrounding his cottage. Full of sculptures made of beach junk, vegetables, stones and rare flowers collected from seeds in hedgerows and by the side of the road, Jarman's garden and life is an inspiration to all artists.

Jarman's final diary is called "Smiling in Slow Motion" and is a record of his final days of living. Even when bitterly ill Jarman was still raging at political injustice, speaking out about hypocrisy, making films and paintings and planting seeds. When I feel that the life of an artist is a hard one, or wonder what kind of cruel, indifferent world we live in, I think of Derek Jarman's courage and fierce, burning creativity in all areas of his life.

rare device

Have a look at Rare Device, fantastic shop full of totally covetable things in New York.

Rena Tom the owner is a true supporter of craft and design. Could she be a closet craft guerilla?

Her website is a treasure chest of links to designers and makers and while you're there look at her blog.

I also love the literary reference in the name of the store. "Strange Fragments" blog title came from a documentary on Bob Marley. One of his band members described his music as "A bunch of strange fragments.." I thought it would be a great name for a ceramics related thing... and the blog was born.

Gardeners not Economists

Adele Horin is a journalist of the Sydney Morning Herald and recently wrote an article on Australians changing relationships with their homes.( Emoh Ruo- An Asset More Than a Haven) Horin writes about the insidious knowledge that your home is a financial asset, rather than, well, a home, and how this knowledge can make you look with distaste on things that you are really very fond of. Those old 50's cupboards in the kitchen suddenly seem small and inconvenient rather than quirky. The horrible thought that if you ripped out the kitchen and replaced it with stainless steel it would have greater resale value slides into your mind.

The obsession with maximizing assets has affected us all in our relationship with the home. Even people who don't own homes dream of having one, not so much as a safe place to live, this is seen as a bonus compared to the financial power of "entering the market". This new idea of homes as an asset has also negatively affected renters as more and more people buy investment properties and renter's precarious existence becomes directly connected to the whims of the "market", interest rates and the rush to renovate and get a great price at auction.

Horin writes "To my parents the family home financed by a cheap war service loan meant security. It turned them into gardeners not economists." I love my home but sometimes I find myself wondering what would happen if we moved our house and sub-divided our land. I hate thinking like this. This is our place of safety. When I've been away I feel like Dorothy in the "Wizard of OZ" waking up to a raggedy little house and saying "OH Aunt Em! There's no place like home."

Guerilla Craft

I've just come back from a couple of days at Verge- the National Ceramics Conference in Brisbane. It was very exciting to catch up with old friends and meet new people. I especially appreciate these events for the fact that younger artists are exposed to the older (wiser!) generation. It was great to speak to icons of Australian pottery such as Kevin Grealy and Johanna Demaine about their careers and history in the ceramic community.

Michael Keighery was part of a panel talking about the future of ceramics in Australia and I think his comments could apply to all areas of craft and art. Keighery was saying that although there is less and less funding available and colleges and art departments are closing and consolidating artists have to get out in the public and not just rely on government funding to make a living or to create new work.

I think that in some ways our reliance on government funding and grants has taken art away from the everyday life and created a self referential niche of grant junkies and bureaucrats. This can be depressing for new artists trying to break in to the funding cycle and creates an exclusive feel to the arts which turns many people off. I think grants are great but you don't have to get grants to make it as an artist what you need are clients, patrons and supporters- to this end I say don't try to break into the government funding cycle, try to break away from it.

Hold craft guerilla events in your local neighborhood, open studios and street stalls are a great way to expose your work to locals in the environment where it was made. Blogging is also a great way to get your work out and create your own virtual community. The Mob Store in Brisbane hosts a tiny jewelry workshop and these craft guerrillas are on the front line fighting back control of their own craft destinies through competitions, home sales, and unusual venues such as Reverse Garbage. The Yellow House in Brighton (UK) opens every weekend in May for the Brighton festival and promotes five or six artist by turning the entire house into and exhibition space for a month. Craft is robust enough to be out in the world buffeted by the winds of change and excitement. Guerilla craft events can be a lighthearted way of engaging new people and compliment a gallery based practice.

I picked the first jonquils out of the garden today. Since I don't have a digital camera here is my effort with the photobooth on the computer!

Writing this talk about ceramics and decoration for the National Conference has turned out to be an interesting exercise. Writing about what I like in other artists work has made me go back and reconsider what I'd like my own work to be. This week (in the spare seconds) I've been thinking about how to strengthen the intent of my bowls, how to integrate the line and composition into the work.

Every so often it's good to deconstruct what you are making as if you are a total stranger- it helps to see new things, appreciate the strenghts and think about the weakenesses.

fiona hiscock

I've had a request for more information about Fiona Hiscock. She is an Australian ceramicist based in Victoria and her oversized, handbuilt forms reference colonial domestic ware. Fiona recently did an exhibition based on the remenants of old country gardens around Hill End. Each settler planted a plum, a fig, a quince, and a pear tree in their garden, hardy fruit bearing species. That carried echoes of home and would survive the harsh Australian climate.

busy, busy

I have been busy making work and writing a talk this week. I've got a show at the Marks and Gardner Gallery in Mount Tambourine opening this Saturday. It is a survey of Queensland ceramicists from emerging (Molly Bosworth, Julie Sheperd and me) to well established Keven Grealy, Jane Harthoorn Chiko Jones.
This exhibition is run in conjunction with Verge the National Potters Conference in Brisbane. I'm doing a presentation on ceramics and decoration so get to introduce people to wonderful artists such as Fiona Hiscock who made this handbuilt platter.


I'm also demonstrating on the Wednesday.
Maybe I'll see you there.