Amy Ward
Critique #4
(Artists After Hours #1)
Presence - Decorative & Functional Ceramics
By Laura Aultman
Owen Hall, UNCA
May 2 - 20, 2003
(2.5 pages)
I went to the annual Soup and Salad Bowl Sale this year
and that’s how I found
the arts building with the art gallery
in the first floor. I had gone through and looked at all
the artwork presented there when I
was in for the bowl sale, but didn’t have anything to
take notes with, so I decided to go
back. When I got back what I found was an entirely
new exhibition, this one entirely of
pottery and ceramics all created by one person. While
I certainly think it’s visually attractive
and even intriguing (especially with the many techniques
she utilized), I find it rather challenging
to find anything “deep thinking” about bowls, plates
and vases. As I surveyed the
room, I decided that this could be a fun challenge.
As we walked through the exhibit, one of the fun things
to do was observe the piece
and then try to figure out what the
title of it was before looking at the card. One large vase
was titled “Watermelon” but we decided
it looked more like a Zucchini. I suppose that
watermelons are much more fun than
zucchinis. The texture of each piece was smooth and
polished. It seemed as if she
preferred using a certain technique that gave an unusual molding
effect to the glaze. The possible
process of how those spots were achieved gave me lots to
think about and would be very applicable
to design strategy. Some pots were basically covered
in splotches, and others had very few.
There was a platter suspended on the wall. Round
with rings painted in glaze and
the splotches it reminded me of a galaxy
or solar system. Lo and behold, the title was
“Crystal Galaxy”. A really neat
one was “Eclipse”. A dark blue glaze on a round platter
with gold/bronze designs around the
edge and in the very center. There was a drip, or area,
where the glaze had been thicker and
run during firing that could be seen as a blemish in the
perfect uniformity, but I thought it
resembled pictures of solar flares I have seen. It was a neat
idea to have an eclipse flare.
The way the plate was turned on the wall even made me think
she had seen it and had the same idea.
A really pretty vase named “Gator” had an intriguing combination
of vertical streaks
and splotches. It was on a tall
white pedestal so I couldn’t see into it. My companion is much
taller and I asked him what was inside
and he said there was an alligator! I said that couldn’t be
true because if there were, they’d
have put the jar on a lower pedestal so everyone could see in,
not just the tall people. On
a similar vase, Laura had made small round indentions on the top curve
of the vase and then put a large amount
of glaze so that it melted and ran down in a smooth line
when fired. I really liked the
effect of motion that created.
There was a playful row of multi-colored pears with bronze
stems. It was so unusual
and unexpected that the best response
was to stand there and look at them. They made no
sense, although they were intriguing,
and had they been real pears I would not have eaten
them. The graceful curves were
complimented in both positive and negative space so that
there was an almost musical quality
of harmony and melody involved, each pear sitting on
the wall like notes on sheet music.
There was one piece that really stood out among the rest.
It was a completely different
style. I placed it in the Middle
East somewhere, maybe India or North Africa. That’s when I
read the nameplate, “Greek Covered
Plate” ah-ha! Well, Greece is in there too, at least in that
same neighborhood.
I really liked one of the themes she used with the actual
bowls themselves. The rim
was turned out and the edge was carved,
for lack of a better word, and it was all a rippled,
scalloped effect. It was very
peaceful and soothing. It must have taken a huge amount of
practice to get actual sets of bowls
to look all the same. One of the rippled sets had a pattern
on it that reminded me of snail trails.
I don’t remember the name of the set, but it was very
interesting.
Then there were the itty-bitty pots and vases that were
anywhere from $30-100. The
prices for these things were insane.
Some of them had little red dots, which I assume meant
they’d been sold. Perhaps I should
take up pottery – or just improve my paintings. This goes
back to what Jon said about artists
being forced and driven to get out whatever it is that’s inside
them. I think that depends on your own personal
definition of artist. I think an artist is someone
who can create something that another person will
enjoy and be enriched from – in whatever way
that person requires.