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Eight years ago I have been in Rome at the famous exhibition “Cina - nascita di un impero†(China – the birth of an Empire). I saw many of the life sized terracotta warriors, horses and carts. Burial garments with jade and golden threads as well as other burial artifacts like the bi-discs.

 

I was immediately taken with the wine vessels, which always are tripods. Since then, I try to include some of the beauty found in that exhibition in my works “ceremonial vesselsâ€.

 

The picture bellow shows one of the Chinese tripods, made of bronze.

 

Is there an artifact that had a profound effect on your work? 

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Great question , Evelyne. 

I have been making art for over 50 years, studying from museums, drawing, observing and working in clay for 49 years. Over that time period, many things have influenced me. I will list a few.

In the 1960s I greatly admired the political commentaries of gerry Williams. Several were on display in Newport during NCECA. In 1973,I saw a great show on Discoveries in China since Mao at the Smithsonian in 1974 or 75. Many of the potters who also saw the show agreed on one outstanding pot...a small spittoon of porcelain with a beautiful pale bluish celadon glaze. It was a simple low orb form topped with a very wide flared upper half. This did influence my work during the 70s. I also feel the vitality of early cave drawings influenced my work as far as studying animal movement for my raku pieces as well as an ancient Chinese sculpture of a leaping horse from the Ferghana valley. It is where the Chinese captured their War Horses. 

Other pieces that have inspired me or created great admiration for the artisanship are pieces from South America, particularly Chimu and Nasca Pottery. I greatly admire the tiled ceramics of the Silk Road: Maddarssahs, mosques and mausoleums. And there are the structures of the Alhambra in Spain. 

I admire the work the Arts and Crafts Movement including Adelaide Robineau, Sarah Irvine and Taxilte Doat. And I am a big fan of the naturalist Bernard Pallissy. I saw a wonderful show of his in Paris during the IAC meeting in 2012. 

I fell in love with Romanesque imagery in ancient churches when I traveled the back roads of Spain interviewing potters in the 80s.. I was often near the Pilgrimage to Santiago. That imagery was conveyed in my Architectural installations: Marking the Millennium in the 1990s; one millennium later after the original images from the Revelations of St. John. 

Now I seek my own way experimenting with simple processes. I appreciate low tech and simplicity.

There are a great many things that have had some influence on my thinking if not directly on the outcome of my work.here is a link to what was a thread on my top five potters.

http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/gallery/album/216-my-top-five-potters/

 

 

Marcia

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I LOVE ancient work! I have tried to make some very primitive looking work- not sure if I achieved that or not but it was fun trying. I plan to continue to do it. I like the forms that we no longer use.. maybe we don't have the need for it anymore? I like faces and animal heads. I would like to make an animal faced pouring vessel but I need to practice on my skills a bit to do that.  Here are some of my "mock ups" inspired by...

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Is there an artifact that had a profound effect on your work? 

 

      I'd have to say that the examples of pottery we found in the archaeology field schools was the main

factor of determining which direction my ceramic interests began.  That type of pottery was 18th century

sand tempered and incised, utilitarian vessels.  After starting making pottery, I went in all kinds of directions

like ripples from a rock thrown in the water.  I made fiber tempered and shell tempered vessels also.  However,

my first shell tempered vessels have since turned to dust since they were all over-fired. (a learning experience).

And when I found the cabinet drawers full of examples from all over the world, I made Arizona Pueblo corrugated

jars, a Marie Martinez type vessel (black on black), and got to examine sherds from Korea and Jomon sherds

from Japan.  Each vessel was a learning experience, good or bad.  Most of my ancient pottery stops with the

invention of the wheel.  With coiled pottery, there are only two types of paste and two firing sequences, which

makes that kind of pottery seem simple but is somewhat technical.  I do have an interest in Egyptian and Persian

glazed pottery since the potters did so much with so little.

See ya,

Alabama

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I just came up from my studio, working on another pair of tripods, this time in porcelain....

 

Joy: did the replica survive the pit fire? Delicate designs are vulnerable in the open fire.

 

Marcia: thank you for telling us what inspired you during the last 50 years. Since I know you, I was always under the impression that you are a very curious person and that you have zero fear of trying everything out that's catching your interest. I like that very much!

 

Denice: are you going to museums for influence, or are you searching the web?

 

Chantay: There's a wonderful book about the blue and white Chinese ceramics. I had a look at it in a Spanish bookstore, but I don't remember the name of the book. Did you ever try celadon glazes? Is your "Isabelle" pot celadon?

 

Rebekah: you know, I admire your endurance very much! I see new things of yours almost once a week. And I know you have two teenage daughters and a lively little son. I had to smile about your vulture mug. I am sure you could sell those animal mugs at fairs! I hope to see more of them in the future. Thank you for the pics!

 

sparklingmango: I guess it is not easy to work with the paste? I would love to hear more from you about the Egyptian Fayence. I don't think that many of us are doing that. Is that kind of a brick kiln where your objects are lying on? The one with the holes in it?

 

Alabama: I just had a good look at the photos in your gallery. It is very interesting, your work! One can see the influence of the ancient world! Are you pit firing most of your work?

 

Guinea: you would laugh out loud if you could see my sumi-e attempts... And you are, alas like always, underestimate your ceramics work! You are good!

 

Going back down to my basement studio now, working on the tripods some more....

 

Thank you all for participating in this discussion!

 

Evelyne

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Evelyne,

Yes, I do all my primitive pottery in the misnomer "pit" fire, that

we discussed before. In one of the gallery pictures it shows how I

set everything up for firing. The fire is on top of some weeds that need

to burned, and the greenware is sitting on some grass I want to save.

That is the thinking process I use whenever I "pit" fire. Other factors

might include things like shade,etc.

In 12 days I am giving a ceramic presentation on southeastern pottery

b/n 2500 BC to 1800 AD concentrating on historic Muscogees (Creek). That

is why I am going to fire the 20 plus vessels...for the slideshow,

including the fiber tempered pot. Any good pictures might be posted,

since it takes between 5 to 45 minutes to go thru the motions of putting

a photo in the gallery. I'm challenged in that area.:-).

See ya,

Alabama

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In terms of antiquity specifically, not so much. To some extent, I have been deeply influenced by everything and everyone and every culture and every time period, in clay work, painting & sculpture. One of the great blessings in my life is having lived in Manhattan and having gone to all the museums and galleries and also doing the same in D.C. when I lived in Virginia.  Topped it off with an incredible education (BFA/Crafts/ceramics) from nationally esteemed artist-instructors at VCU's School of the Arts. My favorite ceramics back in the day was the mix of anthropology and pottery found in the works of the Iroquois and other Woodland, eastern tribes. Now, I know that there is nothing new under the sun, and I actually try to shake off influence, because temperamentally I tend to get bummed out when I am overly aware that it has been thought before, done before, and I am too lazy to try to participate in or continue some kind of cultural/creative dialogue in the world of art.  

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Alabama, I'am defilitely intrigued and I would appreciate if you cold post pictures. So no real pit but a so called misnomer pit. How long are you firing the pots in that woodfire? I will send you a how to do list by p.m. (tomorrow or Monday) so that you can post pictures faster...

 

Lee: that is certainly a plus, living in towns with such a lot of museums. Only a few weeks ago I have been in the MET in N.Y. and the MFA in Boston, in each of them a whole day, and I fear I have seen but a very small part of the museums. The tribe art is very interesting and I think we can learn a lot from them. Are there really shapes we didn't invent yet? Hmmmm, that would be a perfect Question of the Week question.

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Evelyne,

     I was going to get you to draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper and list at least 10 ancient pottery

workshops on one side and on the other side list 10 pottery making cultures that fire greenware.  You'll find

that most or all modern ancient pottery workshops split the workshop in two weekends, bisque and then fire the

vessels in a pit.  The traditional pottery cultures that fire greenware won't have pits....  Look for traditional potters

of Africa, Papua New Guinea, Guatamala, and even the South West Indians(USA).... You'll also notice

that most of the fuel used for firing pottery can't be used as cooking fuel...because wood is scarce.

 

    So this morning, I was thinking about your pits this morning, and decided to look in the index of what is

considered by some to be the Bible of primitive ceramics for "pits".  The book was written in the mid-1950s by

Anna Shepard - "Ceramics for the Archaeologist"...  There is no entry in the index for "pits". 

Pits are a modern invention and you can't mix the primitive and modern cultures for making pottery.  :>)

See ya,

Alabama

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The art of the mound builders (whether in the Southeastern US or in Central & South America) has fascinated me since I grew up just a few miles from
Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, GA.  I still gravitate back to those influences and actually get some writing done on the subject when the mood strikes.  Nothing quite influences historical fiction like having an artifact in-hand.

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"Daybreak's Song" (dual chambered whistling vessel - 2011)

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I don't know. I love it all. But for now I just hope I can make a piece that says wow for someone else and they buy it. I love the arts. And once, I was asked to make some folk art animal sculptures for this really rich woman here in Texas. I never made, or even had the folk art culture in me. So I made some african animals, but she did not like them. But told me to keep trying. I was lost. Till one night I had a dream and who did I dream? Picasso! And he show me in symbols to use and I awoke and jump on a pad to scribble down the ideas. I made some clay models for her to approve. And she did. Then she had me doing others sculptures. So I guess you could say I was influenced by Picasso. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true, was Picasso. LOL

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When I was much younger and active in Boy Scouts, there was a winter trip to a scout camp lake that was being drained so that the channel could be cleared of  debris from several seasons of storms.  I had heard stories that this particular location had been an ancient settlement for Native Americans and a few of us accompanied a local archeologist to see what the lake bed looked like when it was more like a 'creek-side' terrain.  It was during that trip that I first saw (and un-earthed) low-fired pottery shards and flint artifacts from the earlier inhabitants.  There was something about the permanence of the pottery that perked my interest...the designs on the shards helped us to identify an era, a particular civilization, and the utility of the piece.  Someone living there 1,000+ years previously had formed, decorated, and fired, and (likely) used the ceramics we were finding, right in that very location. That was/is pretty powerful stuff.

 

In some ways that experience makes me ask myself what someone from the future might ask of the influences that we leave behind for future clay artists?

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Alabama: I noticed that lots of alternative firing potters use lots of different names for the place they fire. I have a real pit, a hole in the earth, where I fire greenware but mostly bisque ware. Only the heavy grogged greenware is not cracking in the pit. Since I don't want to get more cracked than non-cracked pieces, I bisque them beforehand. Of course you are right; in the ancient times they didn't have possibilities to bisque. I have to buy this "Bible" of Anna Shephard's. Thank you.

 

Paul: thank you for your thoughts and for the picture of that beautiful "Deybreak Song"-vessel. Will you publish a book sometime? And thank you for the story about your boy scout times. I can imagine that this experience was awesome. What influence we leave behind, you ask? Sometimes, when I see certain contest winning objects, I can only shake my head and hope that nobody in the future has to guess what that should tell them....

 

Marko: I love your story about the Picasso dream. Is it weird? Crazy? Spooky? Doesn't matter. It was a push forward for you and your customer was happy (and I guess so are you).

 

Evelyne

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Alabama, How long are you firing the pots in that woodfire?..

 

Evelyne,

       Most vessels take about an hour to fire...or until the sticks burn up.  The actual fire lasts about 20 minutes, then it cools and

takes on the smudge and flash marks.  Its all planned so there aren't any surprises.

 

     There was another primitive pottery book written in the 1990s by Prudence Rice... from what I understand it was

meant to be a continuation of Anna Sheppard's "Ceramics for the Archaeologist."  I have read Sheppards book

2 1/2 times, but have not read or own Rice's book.  In Dean Arnolds book Ceramic Theory he made two points worth

noting.  1. A sand tempered vessel is really a sand pot held together with clay used as the medium.   ( I reckon I can kinda

believe that.) ( To me it makes more sense if you apply that to a shell tempered vessel.)

            2.  He made a chart of all the primitive pottery and the drying times of each culture.  What I noticed was the

cultures that made pottery for daily use allowed them to dry 1 - 3 days.  Cultures that sold their pottery, the drying time

was much longer  a week or two.  ( its my opinion they wait for the tourists to show up)

See ya,

Alabama

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