Medieval Skills in Demand!

I love it.

A disastrous fire in the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris destroyed the roof and a tower and maybe weakened other parts of the structure.

A week ago, an article in the Los Angeles Times: "A medieval role model for Notre Dame rebuild", suggests people could rebuild the 12th century roof using materials, tools and techniques from the time the original was built. How do we have access to those tools and techniques?

Of course, because there are people engaged in, passionate about, everything. In this case, there is a fantasy castle build going on a couple of hours away from Paris. With an imaginary owner and story, a 13th century castle is being built, as accurately as possible, with researchers, carpenters, masons...learning, reinventing, and practicing medieval building skills. They are offering their knowledge, labor and training for repairing Notre Dame.

There is something encouraging and delightful about this project, the live past. To a certain extent it is historical play, like reenactments. What delights me is the sudden practicality of this esoteric hobby. Now it is needed, in the contemporary world. (Evidently, in France with all its medieval monuments, these skills are always needed for repair and maintenance, so it is not really sudden.)

And I go directly to pottery making by hand. It was a practical skill set in the past, and still is in some less industrialized places. But could potters be needed, here and now?

Quiet Pots

In the Flow Gallery a few weeks ago, in London, I had an inspiring conversation with one of the gallery staff. I think it was Celia Dawson. She described the gallery's bent towards "quiet pots", the owner's taste. Of course the gallery reflects the owner's taste, as well as what sells successfully. My taste too; what a pleasure to find a curated collection just for me/us.

It's not all ceramics, though that's their emphasis. Wonderful art basketry,  a bit of jewelry. Mostly neutral colors, simple elegant forms, yum.

And why I am not getting any screen shots? Have a look:flowgallery.co.uk

I Was in London Last Week

and isn't that fun to say! Actually I get to London every 2-3 years, and have built up a set of favorite galleries I go to, for inspiring pottery. For your next trip, they are

Contemporary Ceramics Centre
Flow Gallery
Contemporary Applied Arts

This time, just from looking for ceramic events while I was there, I discovered a new marvel. This is Bridget Macklin's work. Check out bridgetmacklin.wordpress.com.

 It's wonderful and improbable. She 's engaged with clay as earth, and earth as whatever mixes with soil. She thinks of it as a focus on geology, but it seems to me more about the mix of things in the earth's surface. To fine porcelain clay, she adds elements she picks up, in places meaningful to her. It's not supposed to be possible to mix ingredients with very different amounts and rates of expansion and contraction under the heat of firing, even under the stress of drying a pot. The always-predicted results are cracked, sometimes exploded pots. She agrees, and some of hers do crack, BUT! Here they are.

 She's got crumbled colored earths mixed in, but also big chunks of rocks, bricks maybe,  whatever she finds. Not possible, but successful. That's a marvel in itself.

And beautiful and sensitive. Sometimes she adds decal images, from photos she takes in the places where she finds her additives.

 Pots very much in and from a place. I love it.

I met her and her work in this exhibit, and the talk with the artists.

 All three (Bridget Macklin, Desa Philippi, Camilla Webb Carter) are real artists, with well-made, thoughtful work that expresses something they want to say and comes intuitively from their experience and choice. But only one really grabs me, that strange thing about taste. The others make pieces that are attractive, and serious; Bridget Macklin's pieces are compelling for me. 


What is in the earth around us anyway? I can't resist adding this picture, the ground on Delos, a Greek island that went, in the unpleasant reality of long history, from sacred site to big port city to declining village to pirate' hideout to national park and sort of sacred archeological treasure. Look! The tan colored bits are broken pottery, everywhere!

New Pots to New Shows

Want to stop in?

I'll be at the North Park Festival of the Arts, around University Ave and 30th St, Saturday May 11, oh wow, from 11 AM til 10PM.

And at the Talmadge Art Show, in the Liberty Station Conference Center, Sunday

, May 19, 10-4.

Empty Bowls 2019

It's a lovely event, a fundraiser for services for homeless people.

Potters make and donate soup bowls, restaurants donate soup and bread. You go for lunch, choose a bowl to use and keep, donate money, have lunch, maybe hear some music. This year in San Diego, Empty Bowls is on May 11, 11-1 at the La Jolla United Methodist Church. Have a look at pictures from other years at facebook.com/EmptyBowlsSanDiego. 

I just looked,and enjoy recognizing bowls I've made. I've been donating since perhaps my second year of making pots. I like it.

And, the Rolando Street Fair

I'll be there, Sunday 3/31.

It's 10-6, on Rolando Blvd., just south of El Cajon Blvd.  This is one of those events where I suspect you are required to walk your dog, in order to be admitted. Perhaps you can sneak in without a dog.

And just for the pleasure of spring yesterday...

What if I Don't Like It?

Taste is fascinating, so variable, so personal, so strong.

I run into this variety in every craft show. It is easy to see favorite colors in people's clothing, and in the pots they choose, but everything else comes as a surprise.

I've thought I am not an artist because so much art does not attract or interest me. I do think I am a potter; but so much pottery does not attract me. The latest Ceramics Monthly magazine forces me to face this.

Do I like this pitcher? Yes,and I'm surprised. Usually my taste runs to simple surfaces, with one or two interesting variable or runny glazes. This is what I'd usually call overloaded, but I find it intriguing, friendly, attractive.

Let's look at others.

The magazine always includes several pages of ceramic pieces from exhibitions. No. I am moderately interested in the top row, but that's all.

Clearly these are expert work, and intended to express whatever the artist has to say. But I don't even look, except for wondering about the carving on the mugs. Overload to me.

Does the expertise matter? Certainly to creating what one has in mind. For me to like it, I'm not sure. I've seen beautiful beginner work. And what I suspect is my best piece ever is not very competent technically.

 It is interesting, graceful, to me attractive.

Definitely, I am attracted to functional pots, not so much to sculpture.

Oh, wow, look at this work by Inge Vincents. Call it sculpture, and it is equally wonderful. Needn't be practical, though these are all usable pots. Simplicity, delicacy, marvelous form.

Ah, that is why I am not so taken with these.

They are chunky and the glaze is a flat color.

 I think I have a narrow taste. Is that OK? I suppose so. If it does any harm, it is only that I do not appreciate a lot that gives other people pleasure and excitement.