Directions to the sale can be found here!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Kiln Opening this weekend!
To all of those in the greater Asheville area.............Matt is having his bi-annual kiln opening sale this Saturday starting at about 9 in the morning. Its a sweet time plus you get to meet this guy (but you don't get to buy any of the mugs on the board...they all cracked!)....
Directions to the sale can be found here!
Directions to the sale can be found here!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
New pots...
I've been MIA for a while I know. Thing got pretty busy here all of a sudden. In about 6 days I'm out of Asheville. Its been a good run but I'm ready for some new scenery. This evening John from the Crimson Laurel Gallery up in Bakersville came down and picked up a bunch of new pots. We took some photos today out at the pottery and here is what we came away with. They are not professional quality by any standard but serve the purpose of record keeping well.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Tink....
Monday, May 19, 2008
Midnight shift confessional....
This is the time I call the “Grind”. My friends have gone home to their beds to drift off into sleep and I am left alone with the kiln, the dogs, and my thoughts. The next two and a half hours will draw by slowly. The moon sinks lower in the gathering clouds, and the flame slowly works its way farther and father back into the kiln. These are some of my favorite times. I’ve fired this kiln 10 or 12 times, Ive lost track by now, but each time I’ve kept watch over it in the small hours of the night. Its an easy kiln to fire, rarely if ever stalling, it sometimes seems like a giant, walking up a steep hill, slowly but showing no sign of tiring. As if it would fire the pots into puddles on the kiln floor.
I toss two more pieces of slab into the fire and the kiln roars to back to life. 2050 degrees reads on the pyrometer. This is also the last time I will sit here at this hour. Coyotes are suddenly calling out in the pasture across the road. The dogs wake for a minute from their slumber to let out a furtive growl and drift back off.
This is the part of being a potter few will get to understand or appreciate. It is the hidden part, the quiet part. There is no glamor to be found sitting in front of a fire at 3:45 in the morning, there is no one to watch, no one to applaud. Even the spring peepers are quiet tonight. A bullfrog sounds in the darkness.
There is one question that comes back to me over and over. Why do I feel, amidst all that is happening in this world, that the only thing I can do is make pottery? Is it because of some resignation? Is it because I grew up in a family of artists, like a learned behavior ground into my bones from a childhood of watching two parents making their art.
In my family there are those who strayed from the path of art, quite a few actually, but the feeling remains; I come from a family of artists. My mother, my father, my sister, my brother, my step grandfather, my aunt, and my great grandfather.
The latter is the one who weighs down the heaviest. I never even met the guy. He died thirty years before I was born, but that man has provided both a great gift and a great weight. Old Henri did things that can’t be repeated and he casts a very, very long shadow.
It hasn’t been until recently that I’ve come to understand a few things. If you hide in a shadow, denying its existence or trying to melt into the darkened ground, it will go nowhere. Instead it hangs heavier, like an enormous over cast sky extending as far as the eye can see in every direction.
You also can’t run from it as the shadow has no end. You can’t change your name or lie about it. It would be like trying to run out from under that endless grey extending interminably on the darkest days. Instead, there seems to be only one option left and that is to look directly into the shadow and acknowledge it. Spread you hands to the sky and await the rain.
When people ask me about Henri Matisse I rarely know what to say. I get fidgety and nervous and before long word spreads not to ask that kid because he hates talking about it. And there is some truth to that, but also a bit of falsehood. Its been my own denial all these years that keeps me in that place. My own shame for not knowing anything about the man, not asking, and not caring. But I would like to clear the air. I might not be able to tell you the name of his favorite model. But if you ask, Ill tell you what its like to be me.
I know maybe this seems like a roundabout way to breach this subject but it’s not the easiest thing for me to work into. Sometimes the pen just has to start moving somewhere. We all want to be recognized for our works and labor. I don’t want to over shadow the shadow. I just hope that one day, many years down the road, people will look on my work and see an integrity and honesty that equals some of those who came before.
Alex Matisse
2150 degrees
4:30 am
May 18th 2008
I toss two more pieces of slab into the fire and the kiln roars to back to life. 2050 degrees reads on the pyrometer. This is also the last time I will sit here at this hour. Coyotes are suddenly calling out in the pasture across the road. The dogs wake for a minute from their slumber to let out a furtive growl and drift back off.
This is the part of being a potter few will get to understand or appreciate. It is the hidden part, the quiet part. There is no glamor to be found sitting in front of a fire at 3:45 in the morning, there is no one to watch, no one to applaud. Even the spring peepers are quiet tonight. A bullfrog sounds in the darkness.
There is one question that comes back to me over and over. Why do I feel, amidst all that is happening in this world, that the only thing I can do is make pottery? Is it because of some resignation? Is it because I grew up in a family of artists, like a learned behavior ground into my bones from a childhood of watching two parents making their art.
In my family there are those who strayed from the path of art, quite a few actually, but the feeling remains; I come from a family of artists. My mother, my father, my sister, my brother, my step grandfather, my aunt, and my great grandfather.
The latter is the one who weighs down the heaviest. I never even met the guy. He died thirty years before I was born, but that man has provided both a great gift and a great weight. Old Henri did things that can’t be repeated and he casts a very, very long shadow.
It hasn’t been until recently that I’ve come to understand a few things. If you hide in a shadow, denying its existence or trying to melt into the darkened ground, it will go nowhere. Instead it hangs heavier, like an enormous over cast sky extending as far as the eye can see in every direction.
You also can’t run from it as the shadow has no end. You can’t change your name or lie about it. It would be like trying to run out from under that endless grey extending interminably on the darkest days. Instead, there seems to be only one option left and that is to look directly into the shadow and acknowledge it. Spread you hands to the sky and await the rain.
When people ask me about Henri Matisse I rarely know what to say. I get fidgety and nervous and before long word spreads not to ask that kid because he hates talking about it. And there is some truth to that, but also a bit of falsehood. Its been my own denial all these years that keeps me in that place. My own shame for not knowing anything about the man, not asking, and not caring. But I would like to clear the air. I might not be able to tell you the name of his favorite model. But if you ask, Ill tell you what its like to be me.
I know maybe this seems like a roundabout way to breach this subject but it’s not the easiest thing for me to work into. Sometimes the pen just has to start moving somewhere. We all want to be recognized for our works and labor. I don’t want to over shadow the shadow. I just hope that one day, many years down the road, people will look on my work and see an integrity and honesty that equals some of those who came before.
Alex Matisse
2150 degrees
4:30 am
May 18th 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Jung Jeezy's update..
I am sitting on my couch, drinking one of Milwaukee's finest creations....a tall, slender, 16 oz can of PBR. As I stated in my last post, Matt and I have been working very hard. Well not much has changed. Today we got all the big pots loaded. Now its just the smaller stuff which takes more time but less energy.
Much has happened in the time that I dropped off the cyber face of the earth. A few notables are as follows....I put some pots in the Crimson Laurel Gallery in Burnsville NC. This is my first foray into the world of galleries and so far has proven to be quite pleasant. The gallery represents some fine potters as well as other craftsfolk and if you are ever in the area I strongly urge you to stop by! The second is the confirmed trip to Turkey. I finally got in touch with Mehmet Gursoy and will be leaving for Istanbul on the 5th of June. A few days in Istanbul and then down to Kutahya and then back to Istanbul and off to Athens for a few more days before returning home. Once I get back to the states it is two months of R&R and then off to Mark Hewitt's for a year or so more of what he calls "finishing school" (all in jest I am sure).
That is the very abbreviated version but its all I have in me. I will let some photos do the talking for a little bit....
Sitting in the empty kiln save for the old wads left behind from the previous firing, completing one of my least favorite things to do in the world....cleaning shelves.
More cleaning, this time a veritable mountain of posts. Each has to be cleaned and washed with Alumina and organized according to height inside the kiln.
We have loaded the tunnel part of the kiln with plates and some larger pots and now Matt is laying wads down for his big jug in the main chamber.
Here the big jug awaits being put into its final position. We use the sheets seen wrapped around its base to move it around.
The jug is in as well as the two larger pot's that I made this cycle (which seem dwarfed when put next to Matts pot!) The tall skinny thing is a lamp.
Here we have moved onto the third row and Matt is wadding the rim of a planter.
With the third row complete we move on to the second. The following should not be attempted at home. Stacking three bricks high is reckless and crazy and performed only by complete lunatics under the supervision of trained.....uhh....lunatics.
....and here, Jung Jeezy as Matt has affectionately begun to refer to me as, poses for his close up at the end of a long day.
Much has happened in the time that I dropped off the cyber face of the earth. A few notables are as follows....I put some pots in the Crimson Laurel Gallery in Burnsville NC. This is my first foray into the world of galleries and so far has proven to be quite pleasant. The gallery represents some fine potters as well as other craftsfolk and if you are ever in the area I strongly urge you to stop by! The second is the confirmed trip to Turkey. I finally got in touch with Mehmet Gursoy and will be leaving for Istanbul on the 5th of June. A few days in Istanbul and then down to Kutahya and then back to Istanbul and off to Athens for a few more days before returning home. Once I get back to the states it is two months of R&R and then off to Mark Hewitt's for a year or so more of what he calls "finishing school" (all in jest I am sure).
That is the very abbreviated version but its all I have in me. I will let some photos do the talking for a little bit....
Sitting in the empty kiln save for the old wads left behind from the previous firing, completing one of my least favorite things to do in the world....cleaning shelves.
More cleaning, this time a veritable mountain of posts. Each has to be cleaned and washed with Alumina and organized according to height inside the kiln.
We have loaded the tunnel part of the kiln with plates and some larger pots and now Matt is laying wads down for his big jug in the main chamber.
Here the big jug awaits being put into its final position. We use the sheets seen wrapped around its base to move it around.
The jug is in as well as the two larger pot's that I made this cycle (which seem dwarfed when put next to Matts pot!) The tall skinny thing is a lamp.
Here we have moved onto the third row and Matt is wadding the rim of a planter.
With the third row complete we move on to the second. The following should not be attempted at home. Stacking three bricks high is reckless and crazy and performed only by complete lunatics under the supervision of trained.....uhh....lunatics.
....and here, Jung Jeezy as Matt has affectionately begun to refer to me as, poses for his close up at the end of a long day.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Long time....
As Doug mentioned in a comment on the previous post...long time no blog. Life seemed to have taken over for a little while leaving little time for updates. Matt and I have been working like two stuck mules trying to get everything done for this up coming firing. We have loads and loads of decorating to do, I still have to clean all the shelves and a few more posts, mix up about 75lbs of wadding, throw a few bowls and a platter, the list goes on and on. There is lots of new news down here but I'm running out the door again to meet up with a potter friend for a drink or two or three. I promise I will sit down and actually spend some time on this thing in the next few days. We are coming up on my last firing at the Jones pottery and needless to say it brings up lots of different feelings. For now I will leave you all with an image of a plate. It is really satisfying to watch as patterns gradually shift and change to finally come to point of conclusion, a resting place. A place where balance is achieved, and intricacy is joined with simplicity.
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