Sandy Heidel on mon 26 feb 01
>From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Feb. 25, 2001. If you can't read thi=
s message go to www.jsonline.com and scroll down to a bottom section "Mil=
waukee Journal Sentinel Columnists and Commentary" and click on Dennis Mc=
Cann. =20
Fusion with nature
Japanese tradition sparks creativity at Minnesota studio
Last Updated: Feb. 24, 2001
Dennis McCann
Collegeville, Minn. - The magic in the art is in the fire.
Sister Johanna Becker lit the match in Richard Bresnahan, first as his te=
acher in the 1970s, then as the woman who arranged for the young potter t=
o study his art in Japan. He went for nine months, stayed for four years =
as apprentice to the Nakazatos, potters for 13 generations, then returned=
to the Minnesota countryside to practice his art and share it with other=
s.
Thus began the pottery program at St. John's University, still rooted in =
Japanese philosophy and environmental ethic but producing art that is und=
eniably Midwestern.
The students who come here to learn from Bresnahan are learning as well f=
rom the Nakazatos. They gather around the irori, the Japanese-style heart=
h where everyone is equal and tea is ever warming on the flame in the cen=
ter, and learn to make pots from clay dug by hand just miles away, and gl=
azed with the ashes of Minnesota flax and wheat straw and sunflower hull.
Collegeville =20
Photo/Kimm Anderson
Potter Betsy Price, Hutchinson, Minn., walks to the door of the St. John'=
s University Pottery Studio in Collegeville, Minn. The studio is located =
in the basement of a historic campus dormitory.
Photo/Kimm Anderson
It is common for guests to drop in at the pottery studio, and Bresnahan m=
akes sure hot tea is always available in a modified Japanese tradition. A=
bove, Bresnahan pours tea for two couples who came to visit the studio on=
Tuesday, Feb. 6.
Photo/Kimm Anderson
Master Potter Richard Bresnahan leads visiting artists on a tour of the J=
ohanna Kiln, a natural, wood-fired kiln that is stoked only once a year, =
in September. The kiln features three chambers: The front fire mouth cham=
ber, the glaze chamber, and the Tanegashima chamber.
Photo/Kimm Anderson
Bresnahan answers the pottery studio's phone -- a work of art in itself, =
coated in layers of clay. Telephone calls frequently interrupt Bresnahan'=
s day and there isn't usually time to stop and clean up before answering =
it.
=20
And much like the harvest at the farms that surround this campus, the sea=
son for art reaches fullness in the fall when the Johanna Kiln - just a s=
hort walk from the studio, and named for Sister Becker - is packed with t=
housands of pieces and the fire is lit.
It is a festival of fire, really. Potters from all over are drawn to watc=
h. Volunteers come for weeks to cut and stack deadfall from St. John's wo=
ods or waste wood from local companies, then to stoke the fire to tempera=
tures the mind cannot comprehend, to 2,850 degrees, almost half the heat =
of a nuclear weapon going off.
This is the part of art the artist cannot control. Flame licks where it w=
ants, burning hues in the clay from its own fiery palette, brightness her=
e, a soft blush there, and only days later, when the kiln has cooled agai=
n, do the artists unseal the doors to see how fire has marked their work =
with its magic.
And then the learning begins again. The kiln cools but the fire, really, =
never goes out.
Working with nature
Around the irori, and over tea, one bright winter's day, Bresnahan told t=
he story of St. John's pottery, located where St. John's University and t=
he College of St. Benedict share campus space 90 miles northwest of Minne=
apolis. The program was founded in 1979 after he returned from his appren=
ticeship at Nakazato Takashi Pottery with not just an appreciation for Ja=
panese-style pottery, but also for the way they worked with their environ=
ment. =20
"They had a tremendous way of working with nature," he said, and resource=
fulness bred from generations of isolation in their village. They used on=
ly locally available materials, and work was performed around a central f=
ireplace in their dirt-floor studio, a fire that also cooked their meals =
and heated their tea and warmed both elders and children.
"There was something about a central hearth, a central fire," he said, an=
d so he brought the central fire with him from the Pacific Rim to the Min=
nesota prairie.
The clay used in producing St. John's pottery came from ancient deposits =
that were unearthed when a road was dug at the edge of a glacial ridge a =
few miles from campus. Bresnahan, taking the long view, arranged to have =
175 dump trucks filled with clay brought to St. John's, enough to make ar=
t for 300 years.
One of the monks who watched the procession said, "You plan to live that =
long?"
No, Bresnahan said, but he hoped the program would.
Environmental commitment
The studio, which serves both on-campus students and visiting artists wor=
king under fellowships, is in the basement of St. Joseph Hall, once a car=
riage house that served the Benedictine monks who run St. John's but late=
r lifted up, moved down the road and repositioned to serve art. =20
A recycled building is only one aspect of the program's environmental com=
mitment. The kiln, similarly, was built of recycled material and burns on=
ly waste wood, not gas. Water used to wash the clay is filtered and reuse=
d; even the lighting system in the studio is designed to be more efficien=
t than conventional lighting.
And the use of natural glazes made from ashes of straw and wood means no =
caustic chemicals, as dangerous to artists in a closed studio as they are=
to farmers in their fields, will be needed.
Most farmers, Bresnahan said, would have not a clue that the navy bean st=
raw left as waste in their field could produce a unique effect on a pot o=
r plate, different from the color produced by the ashes of flax straw or =
white elm. But the proof was in a row of vases in his studio, identical i=
n every way but for the different tints created by their different glazes=
..
Lessons from the East
Of course, fickle flame is the ultimate determinant of how the pottery co=
mes out. Bresnahan designed the kiln himself, again influenced by what he=
learned in the East, and built it with material salvaged from old root c=
ellars originally created by the monks with handmade bricks. =20
The McCann Archive
=E2=80=A2Minnesota: Japanese tradition sparks creativity
=E2=80=A2Portage: Park has a few tales to tell of untimely ends
=E2=80=A2Slogans: State a land of fine words
=E2=80=A2Capone: Still making the rounds
=E2=80=A2St. Paul: Crime did pay under this system
=E2=80=A2Minneapolis: Dr. Quack's always in at questionable museum
=E2=80=A2Door County: Celebrates its quiet past
=E2=80=A2Baileys Harbor: Veteran naturalist listens to the stories nature=
tells
=E2=80=A2Shawano: At nature's doorstep
=E2=80=A2Fish Creek: Scary sights, and more
=E2=80=A2Portage: Epic will tell story of America
=E2=80=A2Portage: Building name kindles fond memories of Sister Monica
=E2=80=A2Bayfield: Innkeepers open new door
=E2=80=A2 Search more McCann columns =20
Contact Dennis McCann at (414) 224-2528, or e-mail him at dmccann@onwis.c=
om. =20
Its shelves, recycled from kilns used at the Kohler Co., served the maker=
s of sinks and toilets before they met the needs of artists. At 87 feet l=
ong, it is the largest wood-fired kiln in North America, with three separ=
ate chambers designed to produce different results.
Fire will react one way in a chamber with vaulted ceilings, Bresnahan sai=
d, another when it finds art in square corners.
"This kiln gives absolutely beautiful results," he said. "The artists are=
always surprised because they don't know what to expect."
And that's why some return each year to help with the firing. Some cook m=
eals for the volunteers who cut and haul wood and load the kiln with up t=
o 12,000 pieces of work. It takes three days to heat the first chamber to=
2,850 degrees and 10 days in all to fire the entire kiln. Cooling consum=
es another 14 days, and unloading and cleaning can takes weeks after that=
..
"It's the best ecological model," Bresnahan said, "but also the best comm=
unity building model I've ever come across. It's the work not of just one=
person with his signature on it, it's the work of (all who help.)"
The program is self-supported through sales of the pottery, and so visito=
rs are welcome, especially on weekday afternoons, to view the art and eve=
n to sit at the irori for tea and conversation when Bresnahan is availabl=
e. He recommends that those coming a long distance call ahead to make sur=
e the studio will be open. Telephone (320) 363-2930, or e-mail pottery@cs=
bsju.edu
Call Dennis McCann at (414) 224-2528 or e-mail dmccann@onwis.com
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Feb. 25, 2001.
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