There are Still People with Empty Bowls..

And so the lovely Empty Bowls project continues. Potters make bowls, restaurants make soup, bakeries make bread, sometimes a musician  makes song, everybody donates their art. People come for lunch or dinner, donate I think $20, choose a bowl  to keep, wash it, fill it several times with soup, take some bread, enjoy themselves, and support organizations that assist homeless people.

Next time in San Diego:  lunch on May 13 at 11-1, at the La Jolla Methodist Church, 6063 La Jolla Blvd. All donations support TACO.

Here are some of my bowls for this year.

Wondering About the Weight of Tradition

Relatively few potters these days work in a tradition. There are ongoing traditions, where industrialization has not yet overcome all hand production for daily use (India). There are traditions consciously revived or continued, or even reinvented, for contemporary artistic work (North Carolina, Mata Ortiz). There are grand ancient traditions, which people might refer to in their creative work (Greece, China). But most of us make our own pots, or our own art.

I've just been in Greece. It was a tourist trip, under some time constraints, and I have not had a chance to talk with potters. But their ancient pottery tradition is one of the world's great art forms, in all museums. I started looking for Greek potters and found a strong connection to the ancient tradition. There is, of course, a good market in reproductions for tourists, of ancient and ancient-inspired pots. I was wondering if the weight of that grand tradition almost forces contemporary Greek potters to work with reference to it. So grand, so known, so beautiful, so Greek.

For example, Aristotelis Zizimos, in Delphi, has made pottery in various designs, his own art. However "over the last fifteen years, the charm of ancient ceramics and the magical world created by the depictions of mythical and historical subjects...has led him to focus almost exclusively on  the recreation of ancient Greek ceramics."polytroponart.gr

Maybe there is no way to be a potter in Greece without feeling the ancient art leaning on your shoulder.

Thetis Authentics extends their reason for reproductions beyond charm. They make exact copies to undermine the market in stolen antiquities, as well as making pottery referencing the ancient work for anyone who likes it. Thetis.gr, AtticBlack.com

It does seems possible to resist that pull or pressure. Hector Mavridis, who advertises his workshops in Ceramics Monthly, makes wild, contemporary sculpture. He is, though, an Australian, with US education.  hectormavridis.com

And I saw just a little of another potter's work at the Handmade Festival in a subway station in Athens. Pictures of her work, though not her name, on the announcement of the show. Google Handmade Festival, Athens

The tradition clearly need not dominate. I wonder if it is always present to potters there.