Jeannean Hibbitts on thu 4 sep 08
I was amazed when our van pulled into Yixing last summer, one town of many
in China whose lifeblood is ceramics. Tiny shops full of teapots, yards
with dozens of big planters - I saw the brown ones with gold dragons in many
other places in China - a museum dedicated to ceramics made of the local
clay, workshops, factories, a mural in a park which depicted life in a
pottery village with all aspects of the process, from mining the raw
materials to packaging and shipping the finished pots. Amazing. And
Jingdezhen, the birthplace of porcelain, with public sculptures depicting
the clay process and lampposts sheathed in porcelain, not to mention more
shops and workshops and, of course, the Institute made famous by our Ric
Swenson and Tony Clennell; the art academy teaching young people all forms
of art, including ceramics - throwing on a wheel, handbuilding, sculpture...
An enormous city dedicated to ceramics. We visited Chenlu, in the mountains
outside Xian, with its piles of raw materials and dozens of kilns,
workshops, walls made of pottery "seconds" and shards. In so many places,
ceramics is honored and treasured as art and a way of life. No wonder I
loved China so much.
Those of you who have visited China know what I'm talking about. It's a
different reality. There's no denigration of ceramics as either less than
"real" art or a hobby.
I'm a novice and I don't make a living at pottery, although I hope to make
income off it someday, but I don't consider it a "hobby." I'm serious, even
if I still mostly make crap. It's helping me keep my sanity through a bad
year, and I'm realizing some personal growth, too. I'm becoming more self
reliant as I work out problems and try new things. Heck, I made my own
extruder, with help and advice from Clayart buddies, but I actually put it
together myself. More and more, clay is becoming my lifestyle. I just
realized that I shape clay but clay is also shaping me, and I think I like
the direction I'm heading.
Just a word in defense of ceramics as a hobby (which I guess is something
you do just for fun), though: when we first moved to the north Oregon coast,
I made a friend who invited me to join her in painting bisque at a shop
around the corner from her house - you know the type of shop. You pick a
tile or a cup or a bowl or piggy bank and use low-fire china paints to paint
the piece, then the shop owner glazes it with a clear glaze and fires it,
and you come back and pick it up. We spent many hours drinking coffee and
playing artist. But I'm not much of a painter, and it was the forms that
intrigued me. I really wanted to start from scratch, but didn't know where
to begin. Then someone I knew from work told me about the ceramics program
at the community college and encouraged me to check it out. I finally signed
up for a class and was immediately hooked. Addicted. Lost to the clay cult.
My husband encouraged me by buying me my own wheel (how I love that man!). I
eventually added a kiln and bought all my own glazing materials. I stopped
taking the class because I felt I was too strongly influenced by the
instructor - I'm the type of person who tries to please others and I found
that I was too much trying to make things that would impress him instead of
finding my own voice. I met some wonderful and fascinating people, some full
time students and a lot of people like me who had outside jobs but liked the
clay fix and liked being part of that community. I'm so much richer for
having known them, and I consider them an important although frequently
overlooked part of the whole clay world picture - if nothing else, I'm sure
that without them, there probably wouldn't be a ceramics program at our
college - I don't think they'd have enough enrollment to support it. I'm
planning on going back in the spring to participate in an anagama firing; I
think I'll be ready.
Those of you who have been doing clay for eons, and those of you who just
do it for your sanity (Deb Thuman comes to mind) - you all have my respect
and admiration, and I thank you for accepting me as I am and letting me be a
part of this.
Jeannean
Spider Hole Pottery
Astoria, Oregon
(I named my pottery - such as it is - not to be pretentious but because the
name fit. As I was cleaning out the corner that became my glaze area, I
thought to myself that it was such a spider hole, with webs and critters
everywhere. Now I have few spiders but a family of squatter cats.)
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