Battling the clay god

I went to my first pottery class last Monday. The group of us that were new to it decided we wanted to start by learning to throw. I found it really difficult to get a lump of clay centered on the wheel. It felt like there was too much to remember so that I remained in control.

It was a battle of wills that most times I lost and what felt like promising shapes ended up more and more awry and eventually fell to pieces. This was simultaneously amusing and frustrating.

Later I e-discussed this process with a friend who is a potter and she described the centering process as I'd seen it demonstrated and it was more absorbable to me as words than it had been watching it. Reading it made more sense than seeing it.

No class this Monday as it's the Anzac Day public holiday but I'm really looking forward to trying again the following Monday. The two pieces I did make will be ready to have their bases shaped.

George Hudson Pty. Limited

Barriers

I've been thinking about barriers and walls and separation lately. I took these photos around New Year shortly before the locations changed dramatically.

Gateway into the world

This bowl has two different whites and variations of both in the glaze.

Mirek Smisek

Gateway into the world, Mirek Smisek, 2009. Snowglaze, 85 x 175.

Mirek Smisek has worked as a potter in New Zealand since 1951. I met him at his studio/gallery at Waikanae last Wednesday. He seems very grounded and very energised, calm and vibrant. He emphasised to me and the friends I was with that life is enhanced if you're doing something creative. He encouraged us to start some creative activity.

His advice contrasted to that given by a "life coach" on the radio on New Year's Day who managed to seem manic and mawkish - banality masquerading as profundity.

2010

We've had a good batch of night flowering cactus flowers this season. Since I took this photo Xmas and New Years Eve have happened and I had a four day trip to Te Horo to go to a wedding.

I went with the friends I was staying with to Mirek Smisek and Pamella Annsouth's pottery and gallery at Waikanae. Mirek spoke of his belief that creativity is an essential part of human behaviour. The exhibition '60 Years 60 Pots' is a survey of his work from 1949 to 2009.

http://www.exhibition.services.co.nz/exhibitiontours/show/smisek

Bright lights - Big city

Again with the colours.