Mike Gordon on tue 31 dec 02
Joyce,
Happy New Year, Mary Law is now in Berkeley,Ca. Mike Gordon
Joyce Lee on tue 31 dec 02
Looking at CM again this morning with cuppa in
hand ..... found the article about Mary Law from
San Francisco. Mary's is the very first pottery I
saw on the internet ...... hadn't yet found Clayart ......
nor Robin's books&tapes ..... no workshops ... no
Vegas NCECA ...... but had=20
taken post-retirement celebratory trip to Ireland
BECAUSE (true!) I'd heard there were studio
potters there that might let a tourist in to visit. They
did. THEN several informed me that such potteries
existed all over the U.S. also.... even in California! What a =
revelation .......
what a dork ...... but I'm glad we made the trip.
Returned to the desert and looked up pottery on
the Internet. First potter I found was Mary Law.
What a find! Told you I was lucky. I became
enraptured with salt firings and with her what I
thought of as squatty, chunky, rugged, captivatingly
individualistic forms. I didn't know about Alfred then,
nor Leach, nor Cardew, nor MacKenzie .... knew squat about anything =
except factory- manufactured stoneware slick
functional pots from New England ...... thought
that's the only place those were made, too. Mary
Law's pots in 2-D really packed a wallop for me....
until then, I was only interested in collecting pottery ..... began to =
wonder if I could ever do anything even remotely
like her work. Copied the pages, took them up to
the community college ..... found they salt-fired.....
signed up .... within days I knew I had to have my
own studio ...... or corner of the woodshop ..... or
space next to my car. Quit my interim job (easing
into retirement) with Chapman University. Life changed drastically. =
Haven't "eased into" anything
significant since ..... bang, you go girl, full speed
ahead All the Time.
I adore being part of the communication age, don't
you?
Joyce
In the Mojave where the Sierras are obscured
by blowing sand .... THAT takes a lot of sand ....
but then, we have a lot .......last rain
revealed once again that our stuccoed desert
home is off-white ..... tomorrow it'll be tan again......
desert tan ...... sand tan ..... wind's howling;
westie's crying ... goes right over my head .....
visions of salt/soda/shino/copper red/celadon/
dancin' in my old noggin........
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