I have been thinking a lot about this blog I used to write. It's one of those things, like quiting smoking , that you think about all the time but never seem to get around to it at the end of the day. Here goes trying to ease back into it (now that my readership is completely gone.) Ive been at Marks for some time and it is going alright. I haven't been pleased with how I'm throwing. I suppose that is what I get for talking a three month vacation. It has never come easy and compared to Mark and Joseph I feel extremely slow an inexperienced. The most frustrating thing is that I was making better pots when I was at Matt's than I am now and I am sure there are a number of factors that come into play but it is still incredibly frustrating and drives me at times to a state of pulse pounding madness. I think that in the coming months things should settle down. Every time you start making a new form that is someone else's it always take me at least a board or two before I finally feel like I have a good feel for it. The adjustment of coming from a place where I knew the forms and felt comfortable enough to explore new ones to a place where once again you are at the bottom, receiving what at times feels like unending critiques and struggling to get a half pound bud vase to look right is a little difficult. But I will leave you with a few pictures. All the pots pictured are Mark's except for the board of bud vases and small jars. I hope this finds everyone healthy and well- Alex
"It is a genuine sense of the past that gives pride and purpose and guidance to the present."
Dr. Charles "Terry" Zug
Alex Matisse
Alex Matisse recently completed a two-year pottery apprenticeship with Matt Jones in Sandy Mush NC. He currently works with the potter, Mark Hewitt and in the spring of 2010 he plans to build a kiln and pottery of his own.