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john baymore/korea

updated wed 10 aug 05

 

mel jacobson on tue 9 aug 05


thank you john for your insight.
you have it dead on.

there are many strong historic movements in japan.
kee/o/me/zu is a very strong kyoto based movement/
historic.

mr. uchida was a strong member of that gang. and that
was a really tight...arrogant group of potters...very.
but, they had reason to be. it was a very strong movement.
based, right there, in kyoto. a japanese history.

and, if anyone thinks that racism is an american thing...think again.
on average, japanese are as racist as any group in the world.
koreans are on the bottom of that flag pole.

it was always amazing to me when being in public...and
mr. uchida would say.
`who is that foreign person...where are they from, what do they do?`
i would not have a clue.
`maybe germans, italians..i don't know, or care`.

if a korean was in the same room with mr. uchida...he would
leave. he was an old man, an old sensai. his opinions were
very strong. and, i was the brunt of his conversation. his opinions
on min/gay was strong. he did not like it...as was the case
of many kyoto collectors....it was foreign work, foreign ideas.
all mixed with korea, england and socialism.
he did not care a wit about it. he was not alone in that opinion.
often americans get only one side of the story.
hamada, leach....yanagi. susan peterson turned them into
amercian folk heros.

i am sure things are changing fast in japan...i get letters all the time
from dear friends in kyoto...the world changes fast.
i know that.

the world is a big place...thousands of potters...each with their
own way, own ideas. bless that.

america has thousands of potters...all trying to make their own way.
bless that.
men, women, young and old. our traditions must be born out of
what we do, how we do it. it should not be tied to any other place.

just like japan...it should be tied to japanese ideas....with their traditions,
new ideas....uchida is dead, hamada is dead, leach is dead.
we honor their work and ideas...but we do not have to
make it `all` ours.
mel


from mel/minnetonka.mn.usa
website: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
http://home.comcast.net/~figglywig/clayart.htm
for gail's year book.

Marcia Selsor on tue 9 aug 05


Big Snip
>
> just like japan...it should be tied to japanese ideas....with their
> traditions,
> new ideas....uchida is dead, hamada is dead, leach is dead.
> we honor their work and ideas...but we do not have to
> make it `all` ours.
> mel

I was at the Seduction of Color; Majolica Conference in Toronto about
5 or 6 years ago. I was sitting in front of Al Caiger Smith (famous
British Lusterware potter). He happened to be Bernard Leach grand
nephew. At the end of his presentation he said roughly the
following...(I am trying to be as close to a quote as memory allows)
He said Bernard told him..."we have both chosen clay but you have
chosen a different path." and he gave his blessing to his grand
nephew who was having an opening of his lusterware.
Marcia Selsor

Millard Balfrery on tue 9 aug 05


I'm one of the thousands of American Potters trying to find my way that Mel
just described. I've been involved in Florida bonsai pushing thirty years-
started taking classes about twelve years ago to produce quality bonsai pots. We
can buy decent quality Korean pots, fair quality Chinese pots, or top quality
Tokoname Japanese pots. These people make a good product but for the most part
all their pots are all the same- they've been making the same style pots for
hundreds of years with little or no change. Cookie cutter in style- can hardly
tell one from another!
AN ART FORM THAT IS NOT GROWING AND EXPANDING IS DYING.
I make good quality honest pottery- slab handbuilt, thrown, extruded and
altered that will make the traditionalist Eastern potter stand up and take notice
or go into spontaneous human combustion!
George Ohr was right- no two pots should be the same, by making each an
individual , each has a piece of the potter's soul in it. At my first two small
sales i sold only two pots. Boxed them all up and keep making more- maybe the
fall sale at Fairchild Garden in Miami will be good?
Just my humble opinion, Respectfully Submitted- Millard