[Clayart] Clayart Digest, Vol 74, Issue 69
vpitelka at dtccom.net
vpitelka at dtccom.net
Sat Jan 29 15:21:56 UTC 2022
Craig Clark kindly complimented my list of the 20 most influential potters, and wrote, "To this I would add Maria Martinez, Peter Voulkos and Paul Soldner."
Hi Craig,
You have named three of the most important potters of the 20th century, but none of them really had much influence on the subsequent evolution of utilitarian pottery, and that is what Jeff asked about.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Potter, Writer, Teacher
Chapel Hill, NC
vpitelka at dtccom.net
www.vincepitelka.com
https://chathamartistsguild.org/
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart <clayart-bounces at lists.clayartworld.com> On Behalf Of Craig Clark
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2022 8:37 PM
To: clayart at lists.clayartworld.com
Subject: Re: [Clayart] Clayart Digest, Vol 74, Issue 69
20 Most Influential Potters
The list Vince provided is a definitive one. Adelaide Alsop Robineau, Charles Fergus Binns, George Ohr, F. Carlton Ball, Bernard Leach, Michael Cardew, Val Cushing, Warren McKenzie, Toshiko Takaezu, Ken Ferguson, David Shaner, Lucie Rie, Shoji Hamada, Robin Hopper, Tom Coleman, Ellen Shankin, Jeff Oestreich, Linda Christianson, Randy Johnston, Josh DeWeese.
Who have I left out?
- Vince
To this I would add Maria Martinez, Peter Voulkos and Paul Soldner
Craig
On Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 4:54 PM <clayart-request at lists.clayartworld.com>
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Mel?s Magic List (David Lyons)
> 2. STACKING WET POTS (Mike Gordon)
> 3. great Pottery Throw Down? mending lamp base w/ glaze
> (Carolyn Curran)
> 4. Re: top 20 list (David Woof)
> 5. Re: great Pottery Throw Down? mending lamp base w/ glaze
> (Terry Lazaroff)
> 6. Some Important Mentors..... (Hank Murrow)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2022 14:06:59 -0600
> From: David Lyons <lyonsd at plbb.us>
> To: clayart at lists.clayartworld.com
> Subject: [Clayart] Mel?s Magic List
> Message-ID: <C39F40DE-7789-4BA4-BEDC-FF5676E4456F at plbb.us>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
> Spot on, Mel.
> Dave Lyons
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2022 12:26:23 -0800
> From: Mike Gordon <clayart at earthlink.net>
> To: Clayart international pottery discussion forum
> <clayart at lists.clayartworld.com>
> Subject: [Clayart] STACKING WET POTS
> Message-ID: <16CA8F78-420D-48DD-9BC1-9282EA0883E5 at earthlink.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> When I was teaching ceramics in high school I would sometimes stack
> wet pots into a bisque kiln, put it on pilot over night & fire the
> next morning. Nothing ever blew up sometimes they had cracks in the
> bottom.Mike Gordon
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2022 15:30:30 -0500
> From: Carolyn Curran <cncpots2 at gmail.com>
> To: clayart at lists.clayartworld.com
> Subject: [Clayart] great Pottery Throw Down? mending lamp base w/
> glaze
> Message-ID:
> <CA+u4nii=9UbUk804aNGns_apEq2d9muhaZx3wh5z6E=
> 3gLC6cA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> It just dawned on me that the Pottery Throw Down Show may be a weekly
> show -which might explain the rushed schedule. When you. binge watch on a
> streaming channel, you forget the time constraints. But still, they use
> a big deal expert kiln man to fire the pieces and you would think he could
> candle for longer period of time... If I were a contestant, I would be
> ticked off if my pieces were not dry. and exploded....especially when
> the host potters always go on. and on about drying the ware completely before
> putting in the kiln. Maybe they have to sign a release of some sort
> before they get on the show.
>
> And I still think potters can't really use glaze as a mender in most
> cases...
>
> I think I am most of all fascinated by the toilet projects or other water
> challenges they show on show. And of course I am hyper critical when
> they have a segment throwing pots in miniature scale, since
> that's been my thing for many decades. Cheerio!
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>
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2022 20:38:12 +0000
> From: David Woof <woofpots at hotmail.com>
> To: Clayart international pottery discussion forum
> <clayart at lists.clayartworld.com>
> Subject: Re: [Clayart] top 20 list
> Message-ID:
> <
> MWHPR15MB1469EAB98528DC38A202BA60C6229 at MWHPR15MB1469.namprd15.prod.out
> look.com
> >
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Vince sez: "We don't have enough information on potters who have risen
> to success in the 21st century to know how influential they will be. "
>
> Another view perhaps, would be to direct the students to do a
> well-considered paper on the influence George Orr had on Robert
> Arneson and Clayton Bailey et. al.
>
> And how this California influence has evolved to influence Modern
> domestic Studio Pottery expressions.
>
> Including Vince, your own personal evolution away from the table and
> kitchen ware you did in the Humbolt studio eons ago, to your larger
> "sculptural buckets, pitchers, and pots" that give an honoring nod to
> the utilitarian well they were drawn from.
>
> Students working together in a studio influence each other as well.
> If one would stop and think, one might ponder, why so many folks are
> hung up on hierarchical assessment of who was most successful, or
> influentially great? It is such a huge world of clay work and
> opportunity, relax and enjoy!!!
>
> Some presentations and assignments to students, if one breaks it down,
> are to satisfy the administration that you did something in class that they in
> the competitive Ivory Tower spirit can understand. Like they never get
> much beyond learning how to "center" themselves on the toilet. And
> when they did take an obligatory Ceramics Class on pass/fail we gave
> them a pass as a professional courtesy.
>
> In Morocco I met a potter throwing pots on an old wooden wagon wheel
> mounted on a wooden bearing stake driven into the ground. He plopped
> the ball of clay on the central hub disc, gave the wheel a healthy
> spin and as the slightly wobbling wheel spun, he leaned over the
> ground level wheel and his body wobbled with it in a gracefully joyful
> dance as truly great vessels rose, formed, and grew large under the
> tutoring of his capable hands.
> Out of respect that he had a living to make we didn't attempt to
> converse verbally, but with a nod and direct eye contact, our eyes
> spoke everything in recognition of what fellow potters need to say.
>
> I like to think that our meeting was an encouraging relief from the
> not understanding hordes waving selfie sticks he had to endure each day.
>
> Or the Potters of U.S. South East who dig their own clay and then make
> sure to fill in the freshly dug pit so the neighbors cow doesn't slip
> in and become mired. Great and influential pots, sought all up and
> down the Coast, and down to earth folk art pots and jugs that are also
> influential in their own genre as well.
>
> Too big is our world to allow ourselves to apprehend it in tunnel vision.
>
> Misneach,
> Woof.....................now my lyttle Muse form N. Carolina sez if I
> don't make her a set of face mugs and jug, she is a gone gal by
> morning!!!!...........I better get busy then, huh????......<(;
> >0)=}========<.................
>
> ######################################################################
> #####################################################
> ________________________________
> From: Clayart <clayart-bounces at lists.clayartworld.com> on behalf of
> vpitelka at dtccom.net <vpitelka at dtccom.net>
> Sent: Friday, January 28, 2022 10:17 AM
> To: 'Clayart international pottery discussion forum' <
> clayart at lists.clayartworld.com>
> Subject: Re: [Clayart] top 20 list
>
> This is devolving into a fiasco of favorite potters or "best" potters
> rather than the twenty MOST INFLUENTIAL POTTERS of the past century,
> which is what Jeff Weiland asked for. And by influential, I am
> assuming Jeff means the potters who had the greatest influence on the
> subsequent evolution of utilitarian studio pottery (not sculptural
> vessels or pure sculpture). And if you are talking about the most
> influential on the evolution of utilitarian clay, it lets out all the
> most recent potters, however wonderful they are.
>
> My list is confined to the twenty potters who I think had the greatest
> influence on American utilitarian studio pottery, because that's what
> I know from my 30 years teaching ceramics in academia. So please
> remember that this is must my own opinion. I'm selecting from
> throughout the 20th century. We don't have enough information on
> potters who have risen to success in the 21st century to know how
> influential they will be.
>
> Adelaide Alsop Robineau, Charles Fergus Binns, George Ohr, F. Carlton
> Ball, Bernard Leach, Michael Cardew, Val Cushing, Warren McKenzie,
> Toshiko Takaezu, Ken Ferguson, David Shaner, Lucie Rie, Shoji Hamada,
> Robin Hopper, Tom Coleman, Ellen Shankin, Jeff Oestreich, Linda
> Christianson, Randy Johnston, Josh DeWeese.
>
> Who have I left out?
> - Vince
>
> Vince Pitelka
> Potter, Writer, Teacher
> Chapel Hill, NC
> vpitelka at dtccom.net
> www.vincepitelka.com<http://www.vincepitelka.com>
> https://chathamartistsguild.org/
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Clayart <clayart-bounces at lists.clayartworld.com> On Behalf Of
> Jeff Weiland
> Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2022 4:36 PM
> To: Clayart international pottery discussion forum
> <Clayart at lists.clayartworld.com>
> Subject: [Clayart] top 20 list
>
> I'm working on the curriculum for an advanced high school ceramics
> class. I have a question...and wanted to start a debate!!!! I find
> great value in learning from but not copying potters from years gone
> by. We already work with porcelain and Chinese forms, earthenware and
> Greek forms, Native American forms with slip decoration, and a few
> other cultures. What I want to compile is a list of twenty or so most
> influential potter/artists, from the past century or so, that I can
> use for research assignments. I have some of my favorites like Reitz,
> Voulkos, Coleman, Troy, etc. Suggestions and "why" would be welcomed.
> Variety is important.
>
> Jeff Weiland
> 409 Blaine Street
> Knightstown, IN 46148
> 765-345-2021
> weiland at hrtc.net
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2022 16:40:24 -0500
> From: Terry Lazaroff <terrylazaroff at gmail.com>
> To: Clayart international pottery discussion forum
> <clayart at lists.clayartworld.com>
> Subject: Re: [Clayart] great Pottery Throw Down? mending lamp base w/
> glaze
> Message-ID: <C3DAD431-B3B5-4AE7-AE8F-F53387A2DD61 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> I personally find these reality shows a crock. I look at the chef
> shows. They run in the kitchen, they taste food and re use the spoon
> to stir, and it is amazing that they can plate in ten seconds. All Bs.
>
> Terry
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Jan 28, 2022, at 4:24 PM, Carolyn Curran <cncpots2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > ?It just dawned on me that the Pottery Throw Down Show may be a
> > weekly
> show
> > -which might explain the rushed schedule. When you. binge watch on a
> > streaming channel, you forget the time constraints. But still, they
> use
> > a big deal expert kiln man to fire the pieces and you would think he
> could
> > candle for longer period of time... If I were a contestant, I would be
> > ticked off if my pieces were not dry. and exploded....especially
> > when the host potters always go on. and on about drying the ware
> > completely
> before
> > putting in the kiln. Maybe they have to sign a release of some sort
> > before they get on the show.
> >
> > And I still think potters can't really use glaze as a mender in
> > most cases...
> >
> > I think I am most of all fascinated by the toilet projects or other water
> > challenges they show on show. And of course I am hyper critical
> when
> > they have a segment throwing pots in miniature scale, since
> > that's been my thing for many decades. Cheerio!
> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was
> > scrubbed...
> > URL: <
> https://lists.clayartworld.com/pipermail/clayart/attachments/20220128/
> 26ed78b8/attachment.htm
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2022 14:39:52 -0800
> From: Hank Murrow <hmurrow at efn.org>
> To: Clayart discussion forum <clayart at lists.clayartworld.com>
> Subject: [Clayart] Some Important Mentors.....
> Message-ID: <ECE2B755-374D-4286-B85B-89062A74B7FA at efn.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Dear Clay Folks;
>
> I can only submit a very personal list of potters who influenced me
> through workshops, and studio experience.
>
> Note: My list has little to do with fame or notoriety, despite those
> names who have accrued same. These are
>
> people like Peter Voulkos, who taught me to wedge the oriental way
> with the 1000 pound batch of his clay I
>
> mixed for his Oregon workshop in '59.
>
> Then there is Robert James, who gifted me with a lifelong love of
> metaphor and firing. He trusted me with the
>
> school Alpine for my first firing in a kiln of any kind. He also
> trusted me with the care of his young childen
>
> when he and his wife Connie went to an event or a movie. Michael
> Cardew helped me to make a 5 foot by 40 foot
>
> record on heavy craft paper of his two weeks of lectures on the
> blackboard, which eventually became a help with
>
> his writing "Pioneer Potter". David Stannard worked at his studio on
> Hilltop outside Eugene, with me watching
>
> his every move, and never complaining when I asked why or how. In
> fairness, to not impede his work, I waited
>
> until he served the inevitable fresh baked bread with coffee afterwards.
> He also allowed me to overfire that first
>
> Alpine, gently suggesting that it might be finished, and I shold draw
> on the blackboard how the cones looked when
>
> I set them up. Then he retired the 10 Oclock pm studio, and left it up
> to me to figure it out.
>
> Since thoase days, I have built as many as 175 kilns, and I give him
> the credit for never squashing my enthusiasm,
>
> along with Bob James himself, who quietly told me where to find the
> spare parts to get that overfired Alpine back
>
> in service! which I did that very day by dinnertime.
>
> Our own Vince Pitelka, newly in a wheelchair due to a horribly
> battered leg from an accident in the Escalante
>
> Canyon, let me teach his students for 8 weeks at the Appalachian
> Center for Craft, and fire a soda kiln, and the
>
> bigger stoneware kiln, and daily show his students how I worked ,
> while building those kiln loads of my stuff.
>
>
> George Kokis hired me in the absence of his boss, Henry Lin, at Ohio
> U. in Athens, and between us both we created
>
> a fine opportunity for those students in which to grow and learn. I
> returned the favor later, when I helped him to
>
> get the job from which he retired, at the U of Oregon. Hamada Shoji
> and his son Shinsaku endured my questions at
>
> the workshop they gave at USC, and along with my partner in the Venice
> PotShop, Jane Heald, we enjoyed a fine
>
> lunch Jane brought most days during those several weeks, and I made
> sure that there were Dos Equis beers on hand,
>
> which improved their willingness to speak English noticeably after lunch.
> Jane became the Mother-who-Understands-
>
> and-Inspires me for the remainder of her very creative life.
>
> In 1996, I asked Harry Davis to come for a workshop at the U of Oregon
> for three weeks, scrounging funds from the
>
> City of Eugene for this, and he responded with a memorable series of
> morning and evening talks about the various
>
> potteries he worked in in England, and later started in Africa, Peru,
> and New Zealand. Copies of those notes he also
>
> used to help him write his own book, ?The Potters?Alternative?.
>
> James Laub was a student at Ohio, who became a best friend there, and
> gave me the chance to build my first lifting
>
> fiberkiln, a 350cuft kiln, serving two firing pads from an overhead
> beam and a traveling winch. This formative design for a
>
> factory he was building freed me up to develop my own studio-sized(28
> cuft) lifting version that eventually led to two dozen,
>
> built for potters in Canada and around the US. Jim, having sold his
> own group shop in Eugene, is retiring to do his own work,
>
> and we are building a new version of our design, a bit smaller at
> 12cuft, for his new situation. Perhaps if it is successful, we will
>
> find a manufacturer who wants to build it for other potters. At 83, I
> am more interested in continuing my own clay work than
>
> making money, and my own Doorless Fiberkiln is newly re-lined with
> Zircoonia-reinforced fiber that promises a lifetime(and beyond my own)
>
> of fires, as it has only 500 or so on it at present. I will have a
> younger potter in my will to gift it to. The copy in the Shadbolt
> Centre in
>
> BC has 2400 fires to its credit, so I am encouraged.
>
> There have been others who were just as generous to me during my
> 64-year apprenticeship, but those will have to await another
>
> day and another chin-wag with the Clayart Community. Meanwhile, I have
> my own book to write and self-publish if I can. I will
>
> call it A Potters Primer, as I hope it will reach young ears and eyes
> who are starting in clay, and might find a helping hand useful.
>
> Cheers! to Clayart list serve, Hank in Eugene
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> End of Clayart Digest, Vol 74, Issue 69
> ***************************************
>
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