clennell on wed 8 nov 06
Home from my workshop at Hood College in Maryland. It was my first
participatory workshop and it was great to see the progress everyone made.
There were some pretty incredible 20 lb casseroles and two piece bowls/
platters made.
It is exhausting being a rock star. I put in 3 18 hour days then drove home
10 hours. On the Sunday night when I was more than popped Joyce Michaud
loaded me in the car and took me to visit a potter out in the country far
away. I fell asleep in the back of the car and thought oh my I just need
food and sleep. We visited Mary Bowron. This was the thrill of a life time
for me. In the light of a full moon was this amazing stone house surrounded
by stone country fences, two storey stone barn studio, with this eery
classical music playing and a 76???? year old Mary with a ciggie hanging
from her mouth. Mary fires her anagama for 10 days once a year. The kiln was
HUGE and breaktakingly beautiful as was her property. The kiln shed was the
size of a hockey arena, had a kitchen attached and everything and I mean
everything was in it's place. Her work knocked me dead. I bought 4 of her
platters that were stacked on sea shells. Breathtakingly beautiful! We went
into her home for a beer and cashews. It was full to the beams of pots, art
and books. She lives alone and lives art. Everything about her was art. I
thought she was breathtakingly beautiful. She had the apple red face,
straight white hair, bright blue eyes that penetrated me and these strong
knarly hands. She moved quickly and we needed more time together. She and i
talked a language. A language of hard labour.
Thanks to Joyce for a great weekend. She read me like a book. She offers a
super programme with MFA students that can actually make things well, not
just learning the basics and calling themselves masters.
I'm home now working for Santa.
Cheers,
Tony
P.S Upper NY state, PA and Maryland are the most beautiful states to drive.
Wow! Up the river from Harrisburg, PA to Rochester- breathtakingly
beautiful!!!
Tony and Sheila Clennell
Sour Cherry Pottery
4545 King Street
Beamsville, Ontario
CANADA L0R 1B1
How To Make Handmade Cane Handles, Taking the Macho Outta Bigware
and Get a Handle On It DVD's available at
http://www.sourcherrypottery.com
Hank Murrow on wed 8 nov 06
On Nov 8, 2006, at 3:10 PM, clennell wrote:
> Home from my workshop at Hood College in Maryland. It was my first
> participatory workshop and it was great to see the progress everyone
> made.
> There were some pretty incredible 20 lb casseroles and two piece bowls/
> platters made.
> It is exhausting being a rock star. I put in 3 18 hour days then drove
> home
> 10 hours. On the Sunday night when I was more than popped Joyce Michaud
> loaded me in the car and took me to visit a potter out in the country
> far
> away. I fell asleep in the back of the car and thought oh my I just
> need
> food and sleep. We visited Mary Bowron. This was the thrill of a life
> time
> for me. In the light of a full moon was this amazing stone house
> surrounded
> by stone country fences, two storey stone barn studio, with this eery
> classical music playing and a 76???? year old Mary with a ciggie
> hanging
> from her mouth. Mary fires her anagama for 10 days once a year. The
> kiln was
> HUGE and breaktakingly beautiful as was her property. The kiln shed
> was the
> size of a hockey arena, had a kitchen attached and everything and I
> mean
> everything was in it's place. Her work knocked me dead. I bought 4 of
> her
> platters that were stacked on sea shells. Breathtakingly beautiful! We
> went
> into her home for a beer and cashews. It was full to the beams of
> pots, art
> and books. She lives alone and lives art. Everything about her was
> art. I
> thought she was breathtakingly beautiful. She had the apple red face,
> straight white hair, bright blue eyes that penetrated me and these
> strong
> knarly hands. She moved quickly and we needed more time together. She
> and i
> talked a language. A language of hard labour.
Well, Tony........ I told you about Mary during our gallery crawl in
Balto. I stayed with her the week before the conference. We saw her
work at the woodfire exhibition that your friend bought a Boyden cup
from, and she had a dozen of her woodfired 'heads' in the show that
Kokis was in. Mary got her start in my PotShop in Venice CA in the
early sixties. She worked at home in a dining room covered in clear 40
mil plastic and brought her work to the PotShop to have me fire it. A
great friend, indeed. In my opinion, Mary IS the Unknown Craftsman that
Yanagi and Mel talk about. Her technique(hardly a big enough word for
it) of hand-forming her bowls in dry fine sand is marvellous. The last
time I was there, she had over four hundred of those large hand-formed
bowls waiting to go into that all-devouring anagama, and I stopped
counting the plates when I got over four hundred.
> Thanks to Joyce for a great weekend. She read me like a book. She
> offers a
> super programme with MFA students that can actually make things well,
> not
> just learning the basics and calling themselves masters.
> I'm home now working for Santa.
Me too...... good luck getting them into the sleigh!
Hank in Eugene
www.murrow.biz/hank
Marcia Selsor on wed 8 nov 06
Sounds wonderful. But if you ever go by harrisburg again, stop and
visit the capital. It was and Arts and Crafts design with the floor
done by Moravian tile of Doylestown, pa. It is amazing. even more
amazing is the factory but more, mercer's house at Fonthill...in
Doylestown
Mary sounds like a clay Georgia O'Keefe.
Marcia Selsor
On Nov 8, 2006, at 5:10 PM, clennell wrote:
> Home from my workshop at Hood College in Maryland. It was my first
> participatory workshop and it was great to see the progress
> everyone made.
> There were some pretty incredible 20 lb casseroles and two piece
> bowls/
> platters made.
> It is exhausting being a rock star. I put in 3 18 hour days then
> drove home
> 10 hours. On the Sunday night when I was more than popped Joyce
> Michaud
> loaded me in the car and took me to visit a potter out in the
> country far
> away. I fell asleep in the back of the car and thought oh my I just
> need
> food and sleep. We visited Mary Bowron. This was the thrill of a
> life time
> for me. In the light of a full moon was this amazing stone house
> surrounded
> by stone country fences, two storey stone barn studio, with this eery
> classical music playing and a 76???? year old Mary with a ciggie
> hanging
> from her mouth. Mary fires her anagama for 10 days once a year. The
> kiln was
> HUGE and breaktakingly beautiful as was her property. The kiln shed
> was the
> size of a hockey arena, had a kitchen attached and everything and I
> mean
> everything was in it's place. Her work knocked me dead. I bought 4
> of her
> platters that were stacked on sea shells. Breathtakingly beautiful!
> We went
> into her home for a beer and cashews. It was full to the beams of
> pots, art
> and books. She lives alone and lives art. Everything about her was
> art. I
> thought she was breathtakingly beautiful. She had the apple red face,
> straight white hair, bright blue eyes that penetrated me and these
> strong
> knarly hands. She moved quickly and we needed more time together.
> She and i
> talked a language. A language of hard labour.
> Thanks to Joyce for a great weekend. She read me like a book. She
> offers a
> super programme with MFA students that can actually make things
> well, not
> just learning the basics and calling themselves masters.
> I'm home now working for Santa.
> Cheers,
> Tony
> P.S Upper NY state, PA and Maryland are the most beautiful states
> to drive.
> Wow! Up the river from Harrisburg, PA to Rochester- breathtakingly
> beautiful!!!
> Tony and Sheila Clennell
> Sour Cherry Pottery
> 4545 King Street
> Beamsville, Ontario
> CANADA L0R 1B1
> How To Make Handmade Cane Handles, Taking the Macho Outta Bigware
> and Get a Handle On It DVD's available at
> http://www.sourcherrypottery.com
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> ________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
Marcia Selsor
http://marciaselsor.com
Hank Murrow on thu 9 nov 06
On Nov 8, 2006, at 6:19 PM, Marcia Selsor wrote:
> Sounds wonderful. But if you ever go by Harrisburg again, stop and
> visit the capital. It was and Arts and Crafts design with the floor
> done by Moravian tile of Doylestown, pa. It is amazing. even more
> amazing is the factory but more, mercer's house at Fonthill...in
> Doylestown
When I did a workshop in Harrisburg, our own Joanne Cassaro (now
recovering from a bad accident) hosted me, and was working for the
public television station, having commissioned a DVD of all the art in
the capitol building. It is a marvel in explaining and revealing
Mercer's genius. Nice work, Joanne! The DVD is titled, "A Palace of
Art" and was produced by WITF....... see www.witf.org
> Mary sounds like a clay Georgia O'Keefe.
A very apt description indeed, having known Mary for 44 years and
having met O'Keefe in New Mexico. I admired her small watercolors so
much since encountering them during my school years.
Cheers, Hank
www.murrow.biz/hank
Barbara Lewis on fri 10 nov 06
I, too, had the opportunity to visit Mary Bowron's studio with Cynthia
Bringle and Sybil West. Mary is a remarkable artist and a very interesting
person. When we arrived, she was on her tractor driving through her forest
of Pawlonia trees. We spent the evening with her, having dinner at a local
diner, and in her studio and home. I have never seen so many plates in my
life! ... and the heads in the corn crib! I purchased one of her squarish
plates, which is still my absolute favorite. Apparently, galleries try to
get Mary to sell her work through them but with no success. I just need to
make another trip up there.
I have heard from Sybil about regular events she used to have at her studio
called "Throw and Throw Away" which was designed for potter friends to push
clay to the limits with no expectation of keeping anything. Must have been
a very freeing ... and invigorating ... experience. Barbara
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marcia Selsor"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 9:19 PM
Subject: Re: Breathtakingly Beautiful.
> Sounds wonderful. But if you ever go by harrisburg again, stop and
> visit the capital. It was and Arts and Crafts design with the floor
> done by Moravian tile of Doylestown, pa. It is amazing. even more
> amazing is the factory but more, mercer's house at Fonthill...in
> Doylestown
> Mary sounds like a clay Georgia O'Keefe.
> Marcia Selsor
> On Nov 8, 2006, at 5:10 PM, clennell wrote:
>
>> Home from my workshop at Hood College in Maryland. It was my first
>> participatory workshop and it was great to see the progress
>> everyone made.
>> There were some pretty incredible 20 lb casseroles and two piece
>> bowls/
>> platters made.
>> It is exhausting being a rock star. I put in 3 18 hour days then
>> drove home
>> 10 hours. On the Sunday night when I was more than popped Joyce
>> Michaud
>> loaded me in the car and took me to visit a potter out in the
>> country far
>> away. I fell asleep in the back of the car and thought oh my I just
>> need
>> food and sleep. We visited Mary Bowron. This was the thrill of a
>> life time
>> for me. In the light of a full moon was this amazing stone house
>> surrounded
>> by stone country fences, two storey stone barn studio, with this eery
>> classical music playing and a 76???? year old Mary with a ciggie
>> hanging
>> from her mouth. Mary fires her anagama for 10 days once a year. The
>> kiln was
>> HUGE and breaktakingly beautiful as was her property. The kiln shed
>> was the
>> size of a hockey arena, had a kitchen attached and everything and I
>> mean
>> everything was in it's place. Her work knocked me dead. I bought 4
>> of her
>> platters that were stacked on sea shells. Breathtakingly beautiful!
>> We went
>> into her home for a beer and cashews. It was full to the beams of
>> pots, art
>> and books. She lives alone and lives art. Everything about her was
>> art. I
>> thought she was breathtakingly beautiful. She had the apple red face,
>> straight white hair, bright blue eyes that penetrated me and these
>> strong
>> knarly hands. She moved quickly and we needed more time together.
>> She and i
>> talked a language. A language of hard labour.
>> Thanks to Joyce for a great weekend. She read me like a book. She
>> offers a
>> super programme with MFA students that can actually make things
>> well, not
>> just learning the basics and calling themselves masters.
>> I'm home now working for Santa.
>> Cheers,
>> Tony
>> P.S Upper NY state, PA and Maryland are the most beautiful states
>> to drive.
>> Wow! Up the river from Harrisburg, PA to Rochester- breathtakingly
>> beautiful!!!
>> Tony and Sheila Clennell
>> Sour Cherry Pottery
>> 4545 King Street
>> Beamsville, Ontario
>> CANADA L0R 1B1
>> How To Make Handmade Cane Handles, Taking the Macho Outta Bigware
>> and Get a Handle On It DVD's available at
>> http://www.sourcherrypottery.com
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________________
>> ________
>> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>>
>> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>>
>> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
>> melpots@pclink.com.
>>
>
> Marcia Selsor
> http://marciaselsor.com
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
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