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chinese clay art newsletter july 2005

updated tue 19 jul 05

 

Guangzhen Zhou on mon 18 jul 05


CHINESE CLAYART, July 2005, Vol. 45.
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"CHINESE CLAYART" is a newsletter emailed bi-monthly to professional
artists, curators, collectors, writers, experts, educators and students in
the ceramic field, who want to know about ceramic art in China and things
related. This newsletter will be a bridge between China and Western
countries for the ceramic arts. Comments and suggestions are very welcome.
(Copyright 2005, the Chinese Ceramic Art Council, USA. All rights
reserved.)
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The Chinese Ceramic Art Council, USA
P.O. Box 1733, Cupertino, CA 95015, USA
Tel. 800-689-2529, Fax. 408-777-8321
Email: chineseclayart@hotmail.com
Web: www.chineseclayart.com
Chief Editor: Guangzhen "Po" Zhou
English Editor: Deborah Bouchette
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PROFILE
Chinese Clay Art Scholarship:
Since 1998, the Chinese Ceramic Council USA has sponsored many international
ceramic conferences, exhibitions and other ceramic cultural exchange
programs. This scholarship is mainly funded by the Chinese Clay Art
Corporation USA and partially funded by the municipalities in China that are
ceramic production centers, such as Yixing, Foshan and Jingdezhen.

Honorary Award, ($200-$3,000)
This award is for invited well-known artists, educators, writers or magazine
editors who are going to participate and contribute to Chinese ceramic
cultural exchange programs, such as international conferences, exhibitions,
China ceramic tours; especially for those who were invited to present slide
lectures or to be a group leader (bringing six or more participants for our
international exchange programs). The honorarium may be used to cover
partial costs of the ceramic exchange programs.

Purchase Award, ($100-$3,000)
This award for both well-known artists and emerging artists who have had
shown their art works in the international exhibitions, and the Chinese
Ceramic Art Council USA purchases their art works for permanent collections.

Those who have received a Chinese Ceramic Art Scholarship are as follows:
Honorary Award, 2005
Meiqun Gu, Yixing China
Tony Franks, UK
Don McCance, USA
Janet Mansfield, Australia
Richard Notkin, Montana, USA
Tony Huntley, California, USA
Bob Dixon, Illinois, USA
Barbara Brown, California, USA
Jason Walker, USA
Sergei Isupov, Estonia
James Lawton, USA
Susan Beiner, USA
David Furman, USA
John Neely, USA
Mattew Kelleher, USA (First Place Award of the NCECA International Teapot
Competition)

Purchase Award, 2005
Bo Zhou, Yixing, China

Purchase Award, 2000
Marilyn Levine, California, USA
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CONFERENCE AND EVENT
The International ceramic art exhibitions came to a successful close in the
Yixing Ceramics Museum, Yixing, China, at the end of June 2005. We received
over one hundred art works in total, and most of them were donated to the
museum by the artists. In addition, Barbara Brown has donated an antique
pewter teapot to the museum. When the red covered certificates were handed
over to the artists on the evening of the closing ceremony, the applause
echoed from the highest reaches of the hall.
Earlier in the summer at the Teapot Center of the World-Yixing, there were
over 200 participants from fourteen countries and ceramic artists and
experts from all over China. The president of the International Academy of
Ceramics, Tony Franks, the vice president Janet Mansfield, and NCECA
secretary Don McCance all participated in the conference.
Both eastern and western artists shared their slides of teapots and
sculptures with the audience. The panel discussion received very strong
reactions discussing the similarities and differences of art concepts
between east and west, traditional and contemporary.
Nearly 50 western artists continued on the China ceramic tour after the
conference. They went not only to the regular tourist areas, such as the
Museum of Terri-Cotta Warriors, the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, but
also visited many Chinese traditional ceramic studios, factories and kiln
sites, and presented their slides at the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute in
Jingdezhen and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.
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TRAVEL
Itinerary A:
China Tour and Ceramic Fairs in the golden autumn, Oct. 8-22 (15 days).
Cost: $2,500 (Scholarship available, please contact at
chineseclayart@hotmail.com for details)
Price includes tour guide/translator, transportation, museum & admission
fees, accommodations, meals, and international airfare.
Shanghai, Jingdezhen, Guangzhou/Foshan and Beijing.
10/8, leave from the US.
10/9, arrive Shanghai in the evening.
10/10, Shanghai Museum, Yu garden and Yu market, cruise on the Huangpu
River.
10/11, fly to Jingdezhen.
10/12-14, Jingdezhen International Ceramic Fair and local ceramic cultural
tour.
10/15, fly to Guangzhou/Foshan.
10/16, China International Ceramic Fair-Foshan and local ceramic cultural
tour.
10/19, fly from Guangzhen to Beijing.
10/20-21, Great Wall and the Forbidden City.
10/22, depart from Beijing and fly home.

Itinerary B:
China Tour and Ceramic Fairs in the golden autumn, Oct. 5-24 (20 days).
Cost: $3,450 (Scholarship available, please contact at
chineseclayart@hotmail.com for details)
Price includes tour guide/translator, transportation, museum & admission
fees, accommodations, meals, and international airfare.
Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, Jingdezhen, Guangzhou/Foshan, Hong Kong and
Beijing.
10/5, leave from the US.
10/6, arrive in Beijing in the evening.
10/7, 10/8, evening, overnight train to Xi'an.
10/8, visit the museum of Terri-Cotta Warriors.
10/9, fly to Shanghai.
10/10, Shanghai Museum, Yu garden and Yu market, cruise on the Huangpu
River.
10/11, fly to Jingdezhen.
10/12-14, Jingdezhen International Ceramic Fair and local ceramic cultural
tour.
10/15, fly to Guangzhou/Foshan.
10/16, China International Ceramic Fair-Foshan and local ceramic cultural
tour.
10/19, train to Hong Kong.
10/21, direct train from Hong Kong to Beijing (or fly from Shenzhen to
Beijing).
10/22, Great Wall and the Forbidden City.
10/24, depart from Beijing and fly home.

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ACTIVITIES
Thoughts on Yixing, China 2005 tour

The tour this year took us from Shanghai to Yixing, where we
participated and enjoyed the Yixing 2nd Teapot Conference.
The teapot conference attracts bright and ambitious artists; and almost
unnoticed, we continue to build on the concept that ceramics is our virtual
arena, which brings together and helps support the programs needed for
future growth of our art. It strengthens the research, technological
advances and economic developments both here and beyond.
Yixing has a rich sensuousness and formal conclusion coupled with
meaning that appeals to our feelings and intellect. Despite the challenges,
the ceramic arts expect to move ahead on many fronts. By its nature, the
ceramics arts encompass the spirit and optimism, fueled by good ideas,
imagination, and, ultimately, hard work. Yixing inspires us to plan ahead
with hope and to prepare for a future with endless possibilities.
As I see it, the slide presentation and panel became a forum for an
exchange of information, a communication between the artist and the arts, a
give and take arena to discuss our latest work. Not a platform for…’my work
is better than your work’. This arena continues to embody a sound mission,
by producing provocative and contemporary works. The work we produce will
become the expression of self, a manifestation of freedom. The artists are
fully conscious of their responsibilities for their work and continue to
discover truth by their continued research. What is worth noting is the
self-assurance of each, both East and West.
Making art is a complicated, critical…particularly self-critical;
process that has the basic intent of trying to interpret an idea in some
way. There is also a deeper interpretive understanding required. Goals are
to be set by the artist. But are the goals critical and indebted rather than
practical?
When we speak of teapots as art, we search for some distinctions within
the body of one art. These works can represent basic attitudes towards the
world. Even if one concentrates on one’s subjective state of mind, or
whether one conceives world relationships, or whether one simply
contemplates on self; all depends on ethical and emotional aspects, on one’s
character or on one’s personal view. These provide the basis by which the
work was produced, namely style. Attitudes and age also are determinate
factors.
Trying to discover the elements of artistic form, even in a teapot, is
a valid venture for us. These are social times and artist as a social being
likes to encircle him- or herself with those things adored or feared. Forms
may light up the human mind but they do not fill it. Art is not the main
ingredient of life. The main concern belongs to the store of knowledge we
gain by our continued pursuit of form and content.
In the arts, the form of a teapot is actually complete before we come
to it. All that the artist has to do; is to bring us to it. So, whether you
pour another cup of tea, or just contemplate a teapot’s form and content;
first, just enjoy.

by Bob Dixon (I have been going to China since 1995, and find the tours get
better each year.)
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OPPORTUNITIES
Information about the ceramic fair in China
Oct. 12-18, Jingdezhen International Ceramic Fair 2005
Oct. 13-20, China International Ceramic Fair, Foshan 2005
The Annual International Ceramic Fairs are usually held by the local
governments of ceramics-producing areas and sponsored by the central
government, and the fairs offer trading business opportunities in the
ceramics field. The ceramics fairs feature many companies that provide raw
materials, tools, equipment, and the finished ceramic products such as daily
utensils, decorative items and architecture products.
For more details on the fairs, please contact: chineseclayart@hotmail.com.
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CLAY TOOLS and BOOK STORE
A lot of newly invented clay tools will have arrived by the end of July,
such as the wood molds of butterfly, dragonfly, frog, and Chinese characters
of longevity, double happiness, good luck and love.

Breathable Clay Board is another of our patented products. Do the bottoms of
your greenware clay works dry too slow? Slabs curve during the drying
process because the top side dried too fast? The Clay Board has many small
holes through the surface to the bottom that allow the board to breathe. The
board’s surface is covered by canvas. Moisture from the bottom of greenware
will be able to escape easier and make your wet clay works dry evenly and
faster.

Requested by many of our customers, we have developed larger size (12” x
16”) texture mats. The first will be the larger wood texture mats, which
will arrive by the end of this month.
Please check out the details at our website www.chineseclayart.com.
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An earlier newsletter is on the Web at:
http://www.chineseclayart.com
THE END.
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Guangzhen "Po" Zhou
The Chinese Clay Art, USA
PO Box 1733
Cupertino, CA 95015
Tel. 408-343-3919, 408-777-8319, Fax. 408-777-8321
www.chineseclayart.com, chineseclayart@hotmail.com
Art Tools are Part of Art Works.