Bacia Edelman on thu 7 apr 05
Greetings: Don Reitz is back. To celebrate his wonderful, hard-to-describe,
breathing, alive pots in a large retrospective at the Elvehjem Museum
here in Madison, Wisconsin is a list of some of the attending greats. Don
of course.
Dan Anderson, James Tanner, who had been a student of Don's in the 60s,
Jim Leedy and Jack Troy. Jack, who is also a published poet, read a poem
he wrote
in honor of Don that was powerful like the man and his work. He spoke of
voltage and kilowatts which, as he read, seemed very apt. I saw Leedy wiping
his eyes (he must be a cry-er.) John Balistreri who hosted the workshop
at Bowling Green State where Voulkos suffered his fatal heart attack, spoke
last night and showed slides of his own large sculptures. He works with Jun
Kaneko this year. O.k.!!!! I am dropping the big, big names. It is basically
an old-boys network and the only woman shown on a slide was Beth Lo.
She wasn't here, nor was Rudy Autio, a close friend of the group as he is ill.
Balistreri is younger than the others and was demonstrating at the local
highschool
today and will tomorrow. There will be an 8-hour woodfiring on Saturday
and I am not sure what will be in it, whether john Balistreri drove work
here to fire, or his wet demo pieces, or whether
it will contain some tidbits from a few local folks like me.
I threw three unimportant pots 9 days ago for this kiln (with a 100 deg. fever
as a result of all the hugging at NCECA and the bug we shared or from the air
on the returning plane.) Anyway, they are glazed and ready to be stacked
late Friday, I believe.
I am enjoying what I have encountered so far, though I didn't stay at the
highschool for more than two hours despite the fact that John was demonstrating
to class after class all day. He spoke so kindly to the kids and I liked how
he answered their questions. I threw out a few questions,
for his sake too, while I was there.
I am full of admiration for him and hope to speak with him further during the
woodfiring Saturday.
regards,
Bacia, your reporter from Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Bacia Edelman
Madison, Wisconsin
http://users.skynet.be/russel.fouts/bacia.htm
http://www.silverhawk.com/artisan/clay/edelman/index.html
Jeff Longtin on fri 8 apr 05
Bacia,
Reading your posts from Madison has made me quite nostalgoc at times I must
say, thank you. Additionally, your posts have given me an appreciation for
Madison that I missed as a young person.
As a teenager I was REALLY excited to study with Don. I spent my high school
years throwing feverishly hoping to become a great potter. I also attended a
workshop Don gave at the Mtka Center for the Arts and had the great fortune to
finally meet the man I so admired.......in the men's room!
(I sat patiently across from Don waiting to speak to him alone so I could
finally ask him, "how do you become a great potter?", only to be sidetracked by
the call of nature. I walk into the men's room and there at the next urinal is
none other than Don himself. "Hi, Mr Reitz, my name is Jeff, and I think your
great and I'm coming to study with you next year." Don looks up, slightly
annoyed, "Great kid.")
I got to Madison only to be told that I would have to wait four years to
study with Don and even then it would only be in a class or two. (Nothing like the
intense study I was anticipating.)
That, combined with the fact that it seemed EVERY student on campus was a
beer drinking idiot gave me a really sour impression of the college and city.
Anyway, thank you Bacia for reminding me that there is something more to the
city than my past experiences. Maybe one of these days I'll find the time to
drive down and maybe I'll knock on your door.
take care
Jeff Longtin
not in Madison (for the time being)
Bacia Edelman on fri 8 apr 05
Jeff: I never either studied or taught here (taught at U. of Illinois however)
so I don't understand the mechanics of why they told you that you would have
to wait four years to study with Don Reitz. There are foundation courses
in most
art depts, I suppose, but it sounds sad that you had such a negative
experience.
Some of the students were/are very special. I had friends in ceramics, but
I admit
they were grad students. And I had Sunday night suppers for my late husband's
polisci students, but as far as I can recollect, they were grad students too.
But there is a lot of beauty among the students. I have demonstrated, not
at the U.,
but at Edgewood College, a Catholic college, and at the technical school here.
The students, some perhaps older that 18 to 20, were unusually receptive
and interesting.
So do knock on my door if you visit Madison, but phone first as I am busy
busy busy.
A neighbor did knock on my door this very morning as if he came from
Heaven. He
needed information about who cut down my tree and how good he was. I had met
him and his wife once before just out walking. By chance, he came in and
unscrewed a big problem I am having with my laptop, recently put on a wireless
system. He taught me how to unplug two things, wait 10 seconds etc. This is
not the same thing as rebooting, which I was having to do constantly.
Anyway, this is way off subject. But he was very grateful to get a good
recommendation
for a tree surgeon.
I have to get my 3 uninteresting pots over to the woodfire
kiln area, go back to the highschool to introduce my assistant to John
Balistreri as she is trying to get into grad school. He is aware that she
is interested in Bowling Green State as a result of a brief conversation we had
yesterday.
If there is any more to report about Madison's clay excitement, I will be
online.
Bacia
from Jeff Longtin:
I got to Madison only to be told that I would have to wait four years to
study with Don and even then it would only be in a class or two. (Nothing
like the
intense study I was anticipating.)
That, combined with the fact that it seemed EVERY student on campus was a
beer drinking idiot gave me a really sour impression of the college and city.
Anyway, thank you Bacia for reminding me that there is something more to the
city than my past experiences. Maybe one of these days I'll find the time to
drive down and maybe I'll knock on your door.
Bacia Edelman
Madison, Wisconsin http://users.skynet.be/russel.fouts/bacia.htm
http://www.silverhawk.com/artisan/clay/edelman/index.html
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