GOLDEN WIND RAKU

Compassion in the Clouds

2012-01-09T06:45:00.001-08:00

Compassion in the Clouds, a photo by TheBuddhaBuilder on Flickr.

I think I'd like to do a small series of these -- it was so so fragile in the initial phases. Reminded me of the old game I loved as a child, Pick Up Sticks.

Look around, everywhere a Buddha

2011-12-14T08:15:00.000-08:00

I'm very happy with this one. It has taken a very large leap of faith to sculpt those I know and love. Now that this one is done, right now, I'm very pleased.

Bodhi Leaves Falling from the skies onto Etsy...

2011-10-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Just posted a couple of small bodhi leaves on my etsy website. Shimmering copper red!

Old Buddha Woman With Fire Clouds for Wings

2011-07-29T09:04:00.001-07:00

woman with clouds for wings, a photo by TheBuddhaBuilder on Flickr.

Something new out of the kiln yesterday...

Accepted into the 2011 Visions of Clay Exhibit in Stockton, CA

2011-06-22T15:31:00.000-07:00

Honored and thrilled to have my "Tsunami Equanimity" piece accepted into this show. The juror, Judith S. Schwartz, Ph.D., has identified an international movement of artists who use clay confrontationally within the context of what might be called: art activism. Visions of Clay will be taking place at the LH Horton Jr Gallery Aug - Sept. 2011.

Wise Women Wear Sturdy Wings

2011-06-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

This piece, just (about) done today, was inspired by a book my mother sent me, Wise Women, photography by Joyce Tenneson. Beautiful images of women elders.

Tsunami Buddha

2011-05-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

It's done. Inspired by the disastrous tsunami in Japan, this sculpture was made with an eye to the incredible power of our natural world, but also the incredible power of the human spirit.

New Cloud Buddha

2011-04-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

His face is complicated with emotions and yet he sits there, ever so still, with courage, equanimity, patience. What is, will appear by itself.

i.e.-- tranquility does not mean absence of feeling!

Weeping Buddha With Pewter Clouds and Fire Body

2011-04-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

Just fired this yesterday....

Large Laughing Buddha in progress

2011-04-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

Buddha in the Passenger Seat (as seen from outside looking in)

2011-04-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

He's on his way with two raku Buddha buddies to the CArt Gallery in Seattle. for a show called "Gospel of Art". Opening April 1. Reception and talk April 8th, 3-5pm. Come by if you can!

Tsunami

2011-03-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

My Favorite Times in the Cycle of Clay's Drying....

2011-03-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

All of my sculptures that involve throwing are made from recycled clay (I receive this, free, from a production potter, who is just happy to have someone use it). The clay and I go through the whole cycle together. Scraps of dried clay get tossed in a bucket. Slip from the throwing bucket is added, along with a sprinkling of fine grog for added strength.

I like to simply watch the transformation: from brittle pieces, to an amorphous mush.
And how delightful then, to scoop it up, hearing the swamp-like squelches and watery flow as the clay glops get dropped, scoop by scoop onto plaster bats until it's just just so...

Taking time to do things...
Wedging it up, kneading until smooth and without bubbles.

Then of course the throwing, shaping, sculpting. The crises of encouraging parts to come together and stay together. What will come of this?

Then somehow eventually something does come of it. The thing has taken on a shape and attitude and has something all its own to say.

At which point I think I come to my favorite part, what we ceramic people call the "leather hard" stage of clay in its progression to drying out completely. The structure has its intrinsic integrity. No need to rush or reach for props and wads of clay support. The statement of it is more or less made. Then I can look and look; seeing a stray bit of clay here or there; adding, subtracting in small amounts. There is, visually, still a remnant of moisture in the clay that gives it a look of depth and "being". Things can still be done, but they can be done quietly, with some contemplation and relaxation.

Northwest Flower and Garden Show...coming up!

2011-02-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

Next Wednesday through Sunday, Feb. 23 - 27, one of the biggest flower and garden events in the country begins at the Seattle Convention Center...........and, I'll be there with my Buddhas, Kwan Yins and Bodhidharmas (also a sparkling assortment of ginko and bodhi leaves).

Hope you can stop by for a visit! I'll be in booth #217.
If you've never been, it's a spectacular show, a whole room devoted to orchids, big over-the-top garden displays and ideas. And of course, fine art and sculpture!

Lots of new work. Here's a sneak peak:

Open House and Studio Sale!

2010-12-17T15:22:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Dec. 18, 9am - 6pm

If you're in the Seattle area, come on by!
Lots of Buddhas, tea bowls, and garden art! (and also tea and cookies and other nibbly things)

Large Cloud Buddha

2010-12-02T21:25:00.000-08:00

I'd like to make more of these, with different parts of the body emerging from the clouds and perhaps one with only clouds and a leaf or two...

New Buddhas With Clouds....

2010-11-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

New work: Buddha torso with east/west features

2010-08-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

Playing with the facial features a little more; pulled out the nose and chin along with a slightly different cheekbone structure. Loved working with the thrown form for the torso!

Let Us All Dissolve Into....

2010-08-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

originality. It is a word comprised of origins and thus-ness.

And high aspirations intercepted by the essential abandonment of self.

New Website!!

2010-07-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

I'm putting together my website. Check it out: here. Would love to get feedback on it. Thanks!

Buddha is the Bodhi Tree

2010-07-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

Come on out to the Fremont Fair this weekend!

2010-06-15T07:21:00.000-07:00

The world-famous solstice parade begins at noon on Saturday...be there if you can! The weather looks promising. And if you're inclined to come please stop by my booth where I will be selling Buddhas, Kwan Yins, Bodhidharmas, smoked salmon (!) and clouds and moons. Hours are Saturday 10 - 8, and Sunday 11 - 6, My booth number is A20 and will be located on 35th St. N., between Phinney and 1st. See you there!

Mended Means Another Layer of Beauty (Maybe)

2010-06-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

It is an almost daily conundrum: if a work of art is broken should it be mended, let go of, freed, dissected like some poor unfortunate cadaver, or broken further into pieces tiny enough to line the bottom of a flower pot?

And then, yesterday, I stumbled on this extraordinary article, "The Aesthetics of Mended Japanese Ceramics" here. The beauty of these lovingly repaired wares took my breath away. In traditional Japanese raku ware, a beloved tea bowl might increase its value by the quality of its repair. The repair was not hidden, but highlighted using a glue mixed with gold or silver shavings. The story surrounding the life and rebirth of a pot became a part of the experience of using it in the tea ceremony.

So I decided to repair these fish that I accidentally knocked together as I was removing them from the kiln. The experience of taking time and care in the mending, and making no attempt to hide the repair was a very interesting experience.

Off to the Marketplace in the morning....

2010-06-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

to the Portland Buddhist Festival in the Park. Stop by in you're in the neighborhood! The weather looks promising and the offerings at the festival are sure to enchant, inspire, entertain...!

If Time is Money...

2010-06-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

and both are every-moving, changing entities (i.e.-have no fixed form), then how to place a price tag on a work of art??? How to quantify one that took a moment to create

and one that took day after day, week after week? If I were to define, solely by the mercurial standard of love, I would value the former higher and the latter less. All is shifting, and in the end, I just rattle my metal cup asking for alms!

Applying Sorrow to the Body of Equanimity

2010-05-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

Gone Fishing...Caught These Beauties

2010-05-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

had to share....

The Finishing and oh-so Punishing Last Assignment

2010-05-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

I remember Zen Master Seung Sahn ended nearly every talk with the imperative that we must "finish the great work of life and death, attain enlightenment, save all beings from suffering."

Please note that I've italicized the word "finish".
This is the Achilles Heel for most of us, I bet. To be sure, life and death, enlightenment, the elimination of suffering...those are the concepts that catch our eye. But it all hinges on that subtly impossible little verb, to finish.

And in my little studio world of clay, there is no exception. I may pour my heart into making these little sculptures, but there always seems to be a point where the energy slows down. For me, photography has always been that point. And it is so critical a step if I want to get into shows, make a sale online...and I do, I rely on it completely! My daughter, very kindly and gently, reminded me of this point. And so I must pay attention ... there too! Take the time to learn, practice, and get it right....

And if anyone knows of a good class in digital photography in the Seattle area, please let me know! Thanks.

My First Video Link!!

2010-04-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

If you're interested in a glimpse into the raku process, take a look here:
What fun!

She Looks Much Better Coming Out of Smoke And Ash

2010-04-26T17:21:00.000-07:00

...much better than the tidy painted face that she had before. Whatever was I thinking??? What do you think? Which do you like better?

Beauty Depends on the Passing Presence of Clouds

2010-04-20T15:49:00.000-07:00

Do you not agree?
The clear round moon escapes notice, has no self-nature, nothing to catch the eye.

On the other hand, a moon just behind a trailing wisp of cloud brings out the unique fleeting beauty of life in high relief.

For a few minutes I toyed with the idea of leaving one moon just by itself and in the end I decided to give it a little cloud cover as well....

A View From the Inside of The Moon

2010-04-19T17:05:00.000-07:00

Do not be deceived. It's not a bowl with a need to be filled. It's the inside of the moon.

How appealing it was to make five of these this afternoon, throwing the generous wide open shapes.

And I predict that by tomorrow there will be clouds passing in front of it. Stay tuned!

Opening a Letter, Finding a New Face....

2010-04-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

Being in the moment as a artist (or as anyone for that matter!) means being ready to be inspired at all times, ready to use what's at hand. Something said casually by a friend. A squirrel with feet splayed heading down the maple tree. A batch of photos in the mail.

An amazing photographer friend sent three photos last week (they're also on his blog here. Go to the March 22 photo.) At the time I was just beginning a Kwan Yin (Kannon, Bodhisattva of Compassion). Usually this figure is depicted as a woman. I set the photos of Ba'al beside the Kwan Yin and very soon, these two started to merge.

How many qualities of being we have in our face, in our psyche! Here was a photo of a man who works hard and I imagine, one who doesn't put up with much nonsense. It was so interesting to study his face. If I blocked my view of the right side of his face, there was a dominant feel of hard times. If I blocked off my view of the left side of his face, I saw a side mixed with qualities of play and warmth.

Alive in the Golden Wind

2010-04-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have noticed that I've come up with a proper business name, Golden Wind Raku. Aside from the poetic sound of it, there are so many layers to that name that fit perfectly. There is that common American association with the "golden years", a nice enough euphemism for encroaching old age, a club that I'm proud to be a member of. As T.S. Eliot said, "I grow old, I grow old, I shall wears the bottoms of my trousers rolled."

And then there is that golden, shimmering glow to raku-fired sculptures that is so amazing and wonderful.

And finally, I am a Zen practitioner and teacher in the Golden Wind Zen Order, led by Zen Master Ji Bong of Long Beach, CA.

This phrase, Golden Wind, comes from a very profound and important koan (I'll explain more about koans in my next post). Here is the case:

Yun-men’s “Body Exposed in the Golden Wind”

Source: Blue Cliff Record, Case #27

A monk once asked Zen Master Yun-men, “How is it when the tree withers

and the leaves fall?” Yun-men replied, “Body exposed in the golden wind.”

To the Marketplace ...

2010-04-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite Zen poets/Zen Masters is one not so well known these days. He referred to himself as a bat but he was known in his community as the Old Tea Seller, Baisao. He lived in Japan, 1675-1763.

So in honor of Poetry Month, and with a studio full of boxes packed and ready to go to the Issaquah Farmers Market tomorrow, I offer you this excerpt from one of Baisao's poems.

An excerpt from his poem, "Impromptu"

I'm confirmed in my zany ways,
Out of step with the world.
Peddling tea for a living
Goes with the natural grain.
A quiet mind and a plain life
Excels the finest luxury;
A content mind and tattered robe,
Better far than finest silk.
At dawn I dip from the well,
When I leave I carry the moon;
I shoulder my brazier at evening
And come back trailing the clouds.
excerpted from The Roaring Stream, a wonderful anthology of Zen literature.

The Mystery of Red Raku

2010-04-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, as in my latest firing, I can have five or six figures smoldering in the post-firing reduction bin and one of them (see this little fellow on the right) decides to go all out, as if to say to the universe, "If it's all the same to you, I'll glow. I'll light up and shimmer. I'll be forevermore on fire."

This is my great joy in the raku firing process. I create a form and then it transforms.

The New Booth

2010-03-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

A few of the nice things about my husband being out of work:
1. I've always wanted to pull my weight (financially) a little more and this provided great incentive!
2. He's a great sign painter, and made this new sign for me. By the way, what do you think of my new business name, Golden Wind Raku?
3. He's around to help lift and carry and...
4. Critique! (hmm, in all honesty, sometimes I may not take it with full grace, but I intend to, I always do)

Pocket Buddhas....

2010-03-11T15:59:00.000-08:00

What would you call a grouping of Buddhas? Surely not an army. And they are a quiet bunch, so not a gaggle (these particular Buddhas aren't even birds). A quorum?

How about a mud sangha?

I'm gearing up for shows this summer and realized that it would do well to make these smallish figures of inspirational calm.

Next might be making a series of Buddha faces that can clip on the edge of a laptop...stress deterrent? Clear mind reminder?

The Kindness of Strangers....

2010-03-08T14:41:00.000-08:00

...though the term "stranger" must inevitably be off the mark. Do we not share our human predicament? Many thanks to the woman, just met, that let me borrow this booth display so that I might re-enter the art/craft marketplace, in my attempt to earn more income now that my husband has lost his job.

I freely admit my enthusiasm, which is not unlike what it was thirty-some years ago when I would start off the year applying to shows, wondering where I would go, how I would do, who I would meet.

Raw Glaze, Fired Glaze

2010-03-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

What a difference a little heat makes.

Without being put to the test of fire, glaze is a flat, raw and dusty mix of elements. Add fire.....
and all those earthly particles fuse, interact and become something rather more alive.

Just so, with the elements of daily life. Time passes, things get a little mixed together. We coast. Plateau. Not good, not bad. Then add a bit of fire, and then you'll find out what life has to offer in all its interdependent, even startling hues. Upheaval, earth and universe --- all shifts on their access. How will we manage?

Time to take pictures of the new Buddhas fired today. Hopefully some will sell soon!

Throwing Rings....

2010-02-21T13:35:00.000-08:00

...must be a kind of primitive recording. Okay, maybe you can't spin it on a turntable and play back the recording of those moments when I threw the body for this latest Buddha. But there is, still, a trail of fingertips, of attending to the fullness of space and the intimate love talk of mud-to-mind transmission.

After being away for several days in Los Angeles, I was eager to throw on the wheel and threw several forms, not really caring or allowing myself to be concerned about how they would or could transform in to Buddhas. But they did...here is one of them.

Who Are You/Who Am I?

2010-02-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Here's the face that has emerged from this latest figure.
So many abstract sculptures seem to emphasize a pathos, a discord or suffering of one kind or another. I feel that as I coach out (and that is just how it feels) the features of a face I play with some detail of smile mixed with listening mixed with grace. I've learned over the years that as I look, I become. And so I coach out a smile to my own face as a kind of natural, accidental by-product.

All this is to say nothing of the many imperfections! But still, to coach a smile...that is something in and of itself.
:)

Trusting the Intelligence of Touch

2010-02-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

If I can move my ideas out of the way and just allow my hands to lead, how much more integrated and alive the work becomes!

Lately I've been reading about Yogacara, the ancient Indian writings about how we can understand the workings of the mind. Much is written there that informs contemporary insights in psychology and science, to say nothing of personal insights into our own experience.

Interesting to read about the Indian view of the senses: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. Yes, the brain is also considered to be a sense organ along with the others. But how heavy and cumbersome that brain is, and how it bullies its way to the front of the moment, scarcely allowing the basic and wise activity of simple touch.

Here's is today's touch activity. Actually, time plays an ever-important role too. A quick sweep of the hands through the clay, then it must must must be left to rest before the next sweep. Perhaps a face will appear later on today...

Potentialities....

2010-02-05T10:32:00.000-08:00

Today's Buddha-in-progress reflects the potency, or promise of the moment coming into being. With a single slab of textured clay, I wound it around itself, then squeezed it all together near the top.

Then I stood back and looked. Where is the Buddha within?

Finally, with my current fondness for making use of carpet tacks, I added three of them. Though in actuality they do not hold together anything, it looks like they might!

Riding the (Clay) Wave of Being

2010-02-03T13:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took my last wad of recycled clay and started in squeezing, poking, stretching, smoothing until this Buddha appeared. The clay "wave" was a slab of clay tossed back and forth across my studio floor. Mind you, I know I still need to work of those fingers and toes. Waiting for the clay to dry a little more so that I can reach in there.

This will definitely be raku-fired. With the robe/body all in crackle white and the clay earth/wave in Piepenburg patina.

What Is Joy?

2010-01-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday a friend asked me about joy.

Also yesterday my daughter called and told me about a pact that she and her friends made, to pick a word, any word, to be their word of the year. Her most wonderful word was "exuberance".

So I think I would like to pick one as well. Joy.

And my answer to my friend...?

What is joy?
Joy is the sweet edge bordering catastrophe...
and if we only knew
what a catastrophe was...

Casein Plus Glaze Plus India Ink

2010-01-25T09:03:00.000-08:00

I'm finally ready to say that I've finished this portrait.
Even though I seem to approach poetry and sculpture and Zen in a similar fashion (i.e. never, never, never really finished!). As we say in Zen...the teachings are infinite, we vow to learn them all...

Nevertheless, I am ready to release this one. Interesting nowadays for me to relinquish some old notions of purity of technique, wherein, as a ceramic artist, I "should" only use clay and glaze. I've been exploring casein paints (here, on the face) with a varnish over. The robe is glazed , earthenware fired in my electric kiln. then India ink was rubbed into the crackles. You may notice the steel washer that I've used as a robe "fastener".

I know it doesn't have the fluid immediacy of the raku process...but I feel it has a stillness that is okay as is....

My First All-Day Studio Sale and Tea Party...

2009-12-14T08:36:00.000-08:00

and here are the last three pieces of honey cake cozied up to one of the last tea bowls. It was a lovely day with a steady stream of visitors, conversation, sitting around the kitchen table. Many thanks to all of you that came! Best wishes for the holiday and new year ahead!

Cloud Computing Kwan Yin

2009-12-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

For some time now I've been trying to wrap my mind around my son's job description at Amazon. Cloud developer? What is that? What does cloud computing mean?

And then, as I was snapping pictures of this Kwan Yin this morning, I had a little ahaa! moment. Okay! Internet, inter-connectivity, inter-being, not one, not two but one and two...the experiential insight of Zen meditation. It and dust interpenetrate... Meet me in the clouds!

When? Where? Right here. Right now.

Do I have what it takes, the hardware, the software, the powers-that-be wherewithall?

Turn the switch on. Just see it unfold.
As my poetry mentor and great poet Michael Harper said in the title of his new book, "Use Trouble".
Or as Zen Master Seung Sahn once said, "What a joy it is to be in this world..."

And if you're interested, here's a link to a youtube video of techies talking about clouds.

Cutting Apart, Emptying Out and Re-Emerging...

2009-11-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

these are all qualities that we engage in on a daily and moment-to-moment basis. Ah, the fine art of living in this world! Who would have thought, indeed, that we would have/could have arrived at this point, in just this way....

I should have taken more pictures of this process because it's so fascinating. I took this sculpted head. If you don't mind, I'll call her Kwan Yin now. So then, with a sturdy fettling knife, I cut her in half, top to bottom, making my cut just in front of her ears on either side. I could feel my breath break open as well, the moment has come, sighing down the middle, opening....

Luckily, I just happened to meet the metal armature in the middle. After a fair amount of time spent wiggling, whittling away here and there I was able to extricate Kwan Yin from the armature in two, not-equal-but-relatively-clean halves.

Then over a period of a few days I scooped out the clay on the inside, trying to create a fairly uniform thickness to the clay "skin". Little by little. With periods of rest in between (both for me and the clay), I then scored the edges of both halves and stuck them together again.

Oh, but I'm leaving out an important ingredient...the bust! While the gradual cutting away was going on, I threw a very large inverted bowl type shape. When it dried to the leather-hard stage I folded it and pressed out from the inside to create the suggestion of breasts, shoulders, arms, etc.

Then, finally, yesterday I assembled the parts. Here is what emerged!

Let's Have a Look See Here Now....

2009-11-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

I had the great luxury of gazing at this young woman for three hours at a stretch on a weekly basis for seven weeks. Our sculpting instructor, who spent years studying the art in Italy, said that by far, the biggest thing one learned how to do in learning how to sculpt, was to see. Simply to see clearly.

What do we see when we look out the window of our own eyes? How much of what we see is only our idea, our self-image, our fantasy? And then, how clearly do we see it? How panicked do we feel when grappling with the vast and varied terrain of the human face?

As this latest study in sculpting from a live model taught me...there is no end to this business of seeing!

Put Your Foot on the Gas, Honey....

2009-11-10T17:56:00.001-08:00

Raku firing
Originally uploaded by Bytemarks

I've been struggling recently with getting my kiln up to the necessary temperature. It just seemed to take too long and then it hovered about 100 degrees below where I wanted it to go. I'd look at the propane burner, monstrous channel for fire, fooling around with the air intake, the position, the angle. Why was it taking so long? Perhaps the burner was worn out? Its orifice somehow corroded? What to do...what to do....what to do....

This raku burner had behaved so admirably for hundreds of firings in the past.

Finally I called the manufacturer of the burner to ask his advice. "I'm having trouble getting it up to temperature. The burner's wimping out on me and it didn't used to do that. What, oh what, could it be?"

"Did you make any changes to your kiln lately?"

"Well, yes, as a matter of fact I did. I enlarged it by just a little, just enough to fit an extra inch of Buddha in."

"If you change something even a little, the interior volume changes by a significant amount, i.e.- change one thing and you change everything else in relationship to that one thing. Everybody looks to the thing that makes the most noise (the burner) and blames that. But did you turn up the pressure on the tank?"

"Uh...no."

I detect a slightly weary smile on the other end of the line. Perhaps he has heard this complaint more than a few times before. "You have to put your foot on the gas. Just like in your car. You want it to go faster; press the accelerator."

Sure enough. Tested this simple matter of cause and effect on two firings yesterday. Worked like a charm.

Main difficulty: figuring out what is the root cause, even though it was so direct, so simple and so right in front of me.

What is pure? What is holy?

2009-11-10T07:14:00.000-08:00

I began work in ceramics in 1974, in the midst of the back-to-the-land movement, a time of reclaiming the "old", natural techniques of craftsmanship and calling them pure and holy. We had a half acre organic garden, mulched with seaweed from the Maine coastline. We fished for flounder and dug our clams and mussels from the flats. And I...I threw pots on a (handmade!) kickwheel and made all my own glazes.

One of the great liberations of practicing Zen with a big question...what am I, what is this?...is that I occasionally find those breakaway points, or you might call them points of freedom, or points of creative play.

So I've been pulling away from the path of standard glaze technique. Many other ceramic artists have been doing this! And I've gradually been exploring. What if I used a combination of glaze and casein paints..........and (oh, the purist may gringe in their bones!) flecks of gold glitter? Oh, playing with colors!!! Why has it taken me so long to allow it?

For this Buddha, I liked the over-all color of the greenish glaze. But I wanted something darker, with more play and movement in the tones. (by the way, I am now officially smitten with half-tone black, applied in a wash). Then, to cover a multitude of clay slip sins, I painted an undergarmet of yellow/black-washed/gold-flecked pigments.

Packed Up and Ready at a Moment's Notice...

2009-11-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

We're heading out for the opening reception at Art/Not Terminal Gallery tonight. This black Buddha is nestled in a cozy transport of bubble wrap. Good to go....

And if you're in the Seattle environs come by to see the art work of several talented folks. Show will be running all month. But tonight, 7 - 10pm, there's going to be food, music and lots more art for sale.

Drinking Today's Cup of Tea

2009-11-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

is bittersweet. Dark chocolate with a splash of momentary turquoise wonder. Ashy, warm, sustaining. I sip from this cup fired yesterday (during a brief break in the rain) and consider its qualities. The coarse clay body meets my fingers with only a thin glaze skin between us. Even now, the clay is alive, and breathing.

Action! Fire! Tea.....

2009-10-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

Here, in Issaquah, in the area that is known as the foothills to the Cascade Mountain range, we get more rain than you can imagine. Even more than Seattle. Imagine that! The wind blows the clouds east and they pile up on our side of the mountain, paused by this rather extensive "road block". Then, of course, it rains. And rains.

Now in the midst of this changing season, it takes some getting used to. I've been waiting for several days for a window of non-raining weather so that I could start firing tea bowls.

Yesterday I fired the first of them. Wonderful! Exciting! A bit chilly, but that's okay. Working with a stress fracture in my foot, but that's okay. Ten minutes into my firing and it starts to pour, but even that's okay too. I watch from under cover as the rain hits the kiln and instantly transforms to steam.

After a couple of firings I'm done, and also quite happy with the first tea bowls. So I thoroughly wash one of them, heat up some water and drink a bowl of tea. Ahhhhhhhh...... Earl Gray tea with a definite aroma of smoke lingering in the bowl. Delicious!

Hand-made, Hand-weary

2009-10-22T12:29:00.001-07:00

I've finished throwing and trimming 108 tea bowls as of today. Now all that remains is for my tired hands to rest, the pots to dry and the time to pass. By this time next week I'll begin firings.

For those of you in the vicinity of Seattle, I'll be hosting a tea party and open studio soon: "108 Tea Bowls/108 Buddhas".

Stay tuned!

Repetition vs. Originality....

2009-10-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

yet another false dualistic idea. Today, after having made...oh, fifty or sixty tea bowls, I've felt so much delight for the character of each one. It reminded me of a wonderful book of potters' writings, A Potter's Companion. If you've never heard of it, I highly recommend it for its inspirations, stories and wisdom.

Here is a quote from that book, in the words of Alan Caiger-Smith: "Shapes which are repeated begin to mature without undergoing any obvious changes. The form evolves by itself, and if you compare two pots made to the same measurement at an interval of about five years you find that the shape has become more agreeable simply by being often made." Then he goes on to add this critical point: "I would say there is a difference between inattentive repetition, which leads eventually to something pretty vacant and facile, and repetition done with attention, which is really a growing thing, giving rise to the process of maturing that you only see long afterwards."

The Question of Originality...

2009-10-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

...is irrelevant. Why would anyone ask if my habit of speech is original? No one. To quote from the famous 20th century pottery master, Daniel Rhodes, "Pottery as meditation, as selfless concentration, requires the abandonment of anxiety and the perfection of skill to the point where it can be forgotten and one's consciousness becomes absorbed in the tactile sensations of process."

All becomes revealed. The original body/mind in the form, the core self in the foot.

And what a lovely joy, yet again, to just thrown these simple tea bowls on the wheel! Yesterday I threw a batch, and then another. I was commissioned to make one and now I feel compelled to make a hundred.

Different Glaze, Same Substance

2009-10-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Leaf for leaf. Flow. Cycle. Change. Perfectly not perfect. Earth to earth. Ashes to ashes. To be green and then golden. To be golden and then.....
?
Who knows?
Leaves falling quietly from the trees today. Ashes rise from the raku green leaf.

Dreadlocked Buddha

2009-09-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

What can I say?
along I've felt that images of Buddha should be more fluid and various than what we see in the marketplace today. This particular one feels like it has qualities of the Native American, African, Slavic and Asian traits all rolled into one. And his brief robe, fastened with three carpet tacks.

Amazing to me how different the piece feels after being fired. If you check a few posts back you'll see the white unfired version...

Feathers. Horsehair. Dryer Lint. Sugar.

2009-09-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

What, you might ask, do these items have in common?

You might say, in a more philosophical frame of mind, that each of these in their unique momentary thusness reflects the universe. Each element is both uniquely itself and also completely interpenetrated with everything else.

On the other hand, in a more potterly (mud-caked) frame of mind, you might say that these elements make up the decorative elements on this Buddha. The red-hot Buddha was taken from the raku kiln and placed on the lid of a steel drum. Two small feathers were pressed into his chest and were instantly seared into the body . If you look closely you can see the delecate lines of feathers here and there. Then a few horsehairs were placed along the front and back and instantly sizzled and curled onto the surface creating a lovely squiggly dark memory onto the clay. Last but not least, a pinch of sugar was sprinkled in front and back, creating little dots of black. And then, you might ask about the dryer lint? What's with that?

Nothing ever goes to waste. Nothing ever vanishes. Nothing ever dies and disappears. All transforms. Dryer lint, set underneath the body, and into the Buddha's hair, whispered itself into a cloud of black/gray.

Levitating Hair?

2009-09-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

Just for fun...a female figure in meditation...pink crackle raku robe.......and levitating hair of course! Sometimes my hair feels just like that.

Smokey black and white plus......

2009-09-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

glittering green and red -- the finished piece!

Creating Skin via the method known as Terra Sigillata

2009-09-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

...or terra sig for short.

What a revelation this process is, and so magical!. A thin slurry is made from a combination of clay, sodium silicate, soda ash and water. The mixture is left to sit for a day, during which time the finest particles of clay stay suspended near the surface and the heavier, bulkier particles settle to the bottom. The next day the uppermost layer of slurry is siphoned off. That becomes the terra sig, a milky consistency and color.

This is then brushed over the surface of bone dry clay. As it dries the surface is lightly burnished with a cloth and instantly a delightful sheen, a luminous skin is created, perfect for sculpture.

I've been applying terra sig to a series of Buddhas...laughing Buddhas, serious Buddhas, avant-garde Buddhas. Next I'll bisque fire then and then experiment with glazes and "naked raku" techniques.

Wonderful and invigorating to play the mad -- or I should say, mud -- scientist now and then...

By the way, the first image is of a Buddha face, terra sig-ed, bisque-fired, then a special slip was applied in order to achieve this smoky, crackly effect. Got to experiment with more of that.

About Mist Which Has Nothing To Do With Clay....

2009-09-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

but then again, maybe it does. I stepped outside this morning at 6:30am with the sun only a vague approximation and the mountain nowhere in sight. How lovely!

So to make my association, I have no idea what I will do with clay today or what clay will do with me, the end result nowhere in sight, and the way to get there, at best, a vague approximation...something to do with leaves perhaps? Cedar leaves?

How Chains Can Adorn Rather Than Confine

2009-09-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

Here's one possibility....

It took months of looking at the pieces of robe and the body of the Buddha to imagine how they might come together. I hope it suggests the potential for beauty within imperfection. The gold raku glaze tinged with fire, the crackles in the white glaze, the adornment of chains, the body in fragments...

Feeling Through Identity As A Physical Manifestation in Clay

2009-08-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

Back in the seventies when I lived at the Providence Zen Center and studied with Zen Master Seung Sahn, I noticed that he would often comment on the karma/mind condition that was (to him) so apparent in people's faces. He'd supply a running commentary, "Face not clear!" "Ah, very good face!" "Checking mind face!"

Mind habits seems to seep into the physical features and posture until they are as integrally embedded as muscle, bone and fat.

So as I'm forming these new Buddha faces I'm not aiming for some kind of idealized prototype, but just feeling my way through the clay and my own state of mind. Why do I lean toward high cheekbones? Who knows? But there is something beautiful to me about the mix of mind habit and clarity that I find appealing and complete and human in a way that is so divine.

As per yesterday's post, with a little help from what was at hand, he's now holding his head up on his own just fine. And he's grown a mass of dreadlocks in a single day!

Keep Your Chin Up, Buddha!

2009-08-27T08:35:00.001-07:00

Sometimes we need a little encouragement, yes?
Who ever knows where that support will come from? A bottle of 409 household cleaner within arm's reach? Why not?

Buddha's Golden Eyes Come From Where?

2009-08-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

I usually avoid being painterly in the sense of deliberate detail, but for this Buddha I thought I would glaze the whites of the eyes. But raku has a way of undoing, or re-doing whatever has been intended, sometimes to wonderful effect. I swear I didn't glaze the pupils gold and have no idea how that happened.

Magic, magic everywhere....

Which Of These Spices Is Not Like the Others?

2009-08-11T18:16:00.000-07:00

It's been so many years since I made these little spice jars that sit above my stove. I use them daily. They get filled and emptied, dirtied and cleaned. Over and over, while cooking something on the stove my eyes rest on their happily bulging green forms.

But not until today, when my daughter pointed out (so sweetly!) that there was something a little odd about this collection of spices, did it occur to me that she was quite right. Honestly, my only intention was to make containers for the items that would be needed here. Little did I realize that I had made something funny as well.

Ahhh, the spice(s) of life! The flavors, their functions, their remedies....each one so unique.

Buddha's Dreadlocks

2009-08-03T07:23:00.000-07:00

It is said that when Siddhartha left home to find himself he had curly hair. He cut it off in order to lead the homeless life but as it grew back it curled tightly in corkscrew locks that stayed close to his head. Accordingly, most images you see of the Buddha show his hair in spiraled little knobs.

But really, he must have grown dreadlocks.

From wikipedia: "The Hindu deity Shiva and his followers were described in the scriptures as wearing "jaTaa", meaning "twisted locks of hair", probably derived from the Dravidian word "caTai", which means to twist or to wrap.

The Shaiva Nagas, ascetics of India, wear their jata (long hair) in a twisted knot or bundle on top of the head and let them down only for special occasions and rituals."

Pausing While Considering Buddha's Hair Style

2009-08-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

My daughter suggested a mohawk. Or something urban.

Personally, I have no idea. In more general terms I would like to balance the formal Greek/statuesque character that he has thus far with a few elements of wind (i.e. -- flowing moment, quickly executed, slightly off-kilter).

I'll let it rest for a day (my mind too) and see what occurs to me tomorrow. Stay tuned!

On Entering the Marketplace....

2009-07-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

be prepared for joy. Not necessarily in the sense of hooray, what a good time but something more in the sense of the celebration of humanity unfolding.

Yesterday, as a part of Seattle's big celebration of the new Light Rail service, I participated in a little, itty-bitty craft fair taking place at one of the trains stops, at Othello Station, South Seattle. By far, the smallest craft fair I've ever attended. There were three of us! Three! Set up next to me, two lovely artists. The rest of the booths (just a handful more) were taken over by community groups and businesses. At the end of our very brief row, a small stage for bands, break dancing and poi twirling throughout the day.

I had sworn off doing craft fairs several years ago. Had given away my old booth display and sold my E-Z up canopy. But foolish me...I signed up. And it was a crackling bright summer day. Bountiful humanity streaming by in small rivulets and currents. Small eddies formed where people paused to share their stories. The dancing on the tarmac, the dj calling out, "This one's for you...the woman in the red dress!". The middle aged man who paused in front of my booth shaking his head over and over again, his mouth pursed in confused dismay. Finally he said, "There are no Buddhas here. I don't see any Buddhas!" I laughed (I hope kindly) and asked him, "Where is it that there are no Buddhas?" He shook his head and walked off.

Financially, the worst show I've ever done in my life (and I've done many, many many!). But for the stories and adventures...irreplaceable, priceless, perfectly one-of-a-kind!

Letting Clay Be Clay, But More than That....

2009-06-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

showcasing the "clayness" of clay as a sign of being and beauty. How I relished stretching and folding the clay in this Bodhidharma figure. Press-marks...yes! Cracks...yes! Ripples....yes!

Glowing Molten Moment of Lift-Off

2009-06-16T06:40:00.000-07:00

Here's another shot that Steve took, just as I'm lifting off the kiln lid. The glaze, at this precise moment, is like hot taffy on the clay surface...a syrupy skin with an orange glow. Gives new insight into the term "hot stuff" doesn't it?

Kwan Yin Entering Fire With Great Equanimity

2009-06-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

...by way of raku tongs and a combustion bin full of wood shavings! My friend, Steve Wilson, took this picture and I think it's just spectacular.

Silence Is Not a Default Setting For Yes

2009-06-01T07:56:00.001-07:00

Nor is it a default setting for "no". Is it so hard to receive silence as just that? Absolutely. And yet, once met, the luminous quality surrounds and fills. The birds outside sparkle. The computer sings along. Give a listen.

All About Hair and What Is To Be Done About It

2009-05-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

As a child (and I confess, even as an adult), going to the hair stylist was akin to going to the dentist. Something that must be done. Something that will hurt. Something that will, inevitably, disappoint.

I remember reading about the traditional hairstyle Buddha gets in almost all of his portraits and sculptures. He has these round swirly knobs all over his head. Why? Has anyone ever wondered at this? Did he just happen to have tightly curly hair, or is there some heavy symbolism afoot (or I should say, ahead)?

Here is what is said on this Asian art site:
"The Buddha's hair is usually depicted in the form of "snail-shell" curls. Monks have shaven heads, but according to legend, when the Buddha cut his hair, the uncut portions snapped into these curls and he never had to cut his hair again."

Ah, but my uncut portions spring into frizziness! Sigh.....

The New Big Buddha Fired But Not Very Well Photographed...

2009-05-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

Now that we live in a blogging world, even a writery sort like me feels incomplete without a photo to accompany text. I've done a couple of wonderful firings recently, but the old Nikon that was handed down to me by a friend is starting to fade.

So even though the colors on this are a little off, I thought I'd share an image of this Buddha.

Image upon image upon image......
No matter.
Today is such a rare sunny and warm day. Perhaps I'll fire up the raku kiln again....
Perhaps I'll shop for cameras....
Perhaps I'll sit on the bench in the garden with a cup of ginger tea....

I Confess!

2009-04-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

It's the quickest, most in-the-moment play with clay that holds the most appeal for me. I may spend hours on the details of a face, but it's the flow of the fabric-like texture of clay that catches my breath and gives me such great satisfaction. The body of Buddha is but calm footing for this magnificent rush of clay, wouldn't you say?

Fast and Slow Need to Be Good Friends....

2009-04-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been intrigued by working with deliberate contrasts in time. Kind of like soft and rough textures complimenting each other. So to do aspects of time. Here, the moon is carefully trimmed to a smooth uniform surface (i.e.-it takes more time). And the clouds are swift. A quick brush and smoosh of soft clay and there it is. Done.

On Interdependence, or, Mixing Colors With the Incendiary Ingredients at Hand

2009-04-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

Gold, by itself, is an eye-catching
brilliance . But even better
is when it's poured over
another event,
another glaze.
Just look at that line of red,
and then deep to light
shades of silvery blue.
And then at the very edge
the very best,
a thin line of colorless
glow.

Alchemy, Time and the Magical Transformative Powers of Mind

2009-04-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

A few modifications needed to be made to my new kiln shell. During today's two firings I fiddled with the pyrometer, the angle at which the propane fired into the kiln. I enlarged the flue. I alternately cut back and threw open the air intake. As the propane tank started to freeze up, I was there with a tea kettle full of boiling water to thaw things out.

But ultimately, was none of these things that would account for today's perfect firings wherein not a single piece broke or cracked. (Note: the cracks you see in the moon are crackle lines in the glaze...a good thing!)

It was time. Or more specifically, it was my mind being more relaxed and generous with time. I just allowed more time for the temperature to climb a little slower than usual. When the mail carrier came by, we stood and chatted for a while and I let the kiln just carry on doing what it was doing. All in all I probably added just 15 minutes to each firing. But that was enough!

Also I made up a glorious batch of a raku gold that I was curious to try out on a moon. But now, perhaps I should call it a sun... so brightly does that gold glaze shine.

Buddha's Headache

2009-04-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

I can readily imagine how he feel, really. In fact, his splitting headache is my own. And so it will be Advil for me and epoxy glue for him (see lower left corner of photo for partial evidence).

Sometimes the high drama/rapid firing technique of raku (shall I say life as well?) is just too much for all of us. And yet, does he not look every bit as easy with how things are as he did before being glazed and fired?

Look at him, glued and strapped with a bungie cord and rubber band... and yet he surveys the volatile, changeable nature of cause and effect with such equanimity.

Well, he is just a lump of clay really! Easy enough for him. And I am....I am....

On Raku Kiln Building...

2009-04-07T06:30:00.000-07:00

I've just finished rebuilding my raku kiln. (For those of you that have been following this blog a little bit, it's now two inches wider than the old one and can therefore accommodate the big Buddha I recently made).

For anyone considering such a project as raku kiln building, I would only encourage you to go for it. Grab a free old Weber grill from your local craigslist. Get a length of hardware cloth from the hardware store. A handful of nuts and bolts and high temp wire and you're pretty much good to go. The only two specialty items, and ones that shouldn't be skimped on at all are the insulating fiber and the propane burner. This is not just any propane burner, but one designed specifically for raku firings, bought from Ward Burner Systems. I've used mine for about 100 firings so far and it's worked like a charm every time.

Of course there's one last essential, and that is this old rusty trusty music stand. I don't know if you can find such a gem just anywhere. But here in the last photo is a view of mine, which I have repurposed as a holder for the kiln's pyrometer. What could I possible have ever done without it?

A Poem In Honor of Buddha's Birthday....

2009-04-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a book-length collection of poetry that retells the story of Buddha's life, but recast in contemporary terms, and with the input of several women in his life.

Thanks to a 4Culture grant last year, I've been given a wonderful boost to complete this work. Here's an excerpt from near the beginning. Enjoy!

And if you're interested in reading more of my published poetry, I have two books out: Internal Strategies and Sadie & Mendel, both available at Amazon.com

Note: This is a picture of my grandson. Isn't he handsome?

The poem:

Some Practical Advice From the Midwife For Siddhartha On The Occasion Of His Birth

Here's something you should know in advance: it's a revolving door,
the true beguiling face of beauty that you just sprang through.

Look quick, look sharp. Look up and down
and in all ten directions. Be in love now

because it (your moment, your mother) has already moved on.
She's turned into stream of sunlight, traffic, waterfall,

spilled blood and churning torrents of data entry items.

Astonishing, isn't it?
Look, Sid. Look close, sweet nothing child.

See it right now. See it clear through to the other side. Be the one
to go there and come back around to make the whole world smile.

Weeping While Engulfed in Shimmering Brightness

2009-03-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

This just came out of the kiln yesterday.
Sometimes the quality of the glazes are so breathtakingly ablaze with light.

The contrast here between the sentiment of the subject and the vivid color of the raku robes is a poem all its own.

Meditation in The Electric Moment

2009-03-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

He looks every bit okay with his new residence. Isn't that impressive?

Now that this large Buddha has dried sufficiently, tonight I'll turn the kiln on to its lowest setting, allowing for a long pre-heat, letting the electric moment sneak up on him mildly, gently so that the last vestige of moisture can depart without fuss (i.e.- without explosions). He fits nicely in this kiln, doesn't he, with plenty of room at his head and knees and shoulders.

I'll tackle the next moment electric when it comes (i.e.- how shall he be glazed and in what conditions...build a wider raku kiln especially for him, give him over to a stoneware high-fire glaze treatment and/or do a "cold" glaze with casein paints?).

Do You Allow Fear To Gather Dust On a High Shelf....or

2009-03-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

do you (finally!) take it down and finish it? That was one of my questions to address this last week.

This rather large, rather tall, and particularly heavy Kwan Yin was sitting on my top shelf in the studio, bisque-fired, glazed and awaiting the raku trial-by-fire......for months. What held it up was a voice inside my head saying, "I'm so sorry but you simply aren't strong enough to lift that from the raku kiln when it is red hot and heavy with those long iron tongs, really you can't and mustn't. And furthermore it's bound to come apart in one of its layers. Guaranteed."

However! For some unknown and inexplicable reason I wanted to fire it last Thursday. And did so. The outcome? I did not come apart and furthermore, this new and striking Kwan Yin didn't come apart either. So there, little voice!

Careful Planning vs. Lively, In-the-Moment Spontaneity

2009-03-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

During the last couple of weeks we've had a carpenter here doing a remodel on the bathroom. One day, while watching him measure tile (several times he had to refit and remeasure), I said, "I could never work with wood...I hate to measure things!"

That said, I do sometimes take measurements into consideration. I'd learned, often the hard way, that there is some value to having things fit together...a lid to a jar, a head to its shoulders for example. Wouldn't you agree? Of course my natural inclination is to just do, and think about how it should be done later, after the fact. This habit of mind has some potential flaws, you must realize.

As I have just realized. Yet again. You'd think I was born yesterday but sadly I was not born yesterday and should have known better.

Shall I tell you what I did, but didn't think to do?

I did plan on building this large Buddha on a kiln shelf so I wouldn't have to lift the extremely fragile finished Buddha onto a shelf for firing. Now it's place and ready to be put in the electric kiln for the bisque firing. (Good planning, Anita!)

But.

I forgot to think about the diameter of my raku kiln, which is a good two inches shorter than this Buddha's width at the knees.

Oy vay!
Now I must consider my options. I could 1) build a new and bigger raku kiln. I have enough insulating fiber. But I'd have to build a whole other set-up for it. Or, 2) I could do an electric stoneware firing and forgo the fire effects of raku....

Anita, what am I going to do with you?

Burnishing Buddha's Skin With a Stone Heart

2009-03-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

Maybe I've always loved poetry because it appears in the natural world in ways that continuously surprise me.

Or maybe it's because the world is poetry and I take delight in simply noticing it there.

Or....maybe it's not a matter of the world or poetry at all; maybe it's simply delight all by itself. Then why worry about significance or allusion or deeper underlying import when it's the delight(ful) collusion of time and space at play?

There is a raku firing technique called "Naked Raku" that I'm going to use on this Buddha head. There is no glaze applied (hence the term "naked"). Instead, the decorative element is achieved by a careful, time-consuming burnishing of the surface of the clay when the piece is at the leather-hard stage of drying. By burnishing the clay, the micro-platelets of clay are nudged/pressed into alignment, creating a soft, smooth feel. Best tool for burnishing is stone, and I happen to have this stone heart (quartz) that is just the right size, with just the right smoothness and edge to it to work it into the folds and corners of the face.

Then, once it's ready for the raku firing, I fire it along with everything else, but instead of placing it in a combustion chamber I lift it out of the kiln when it's red-hot and place it on a metal shelf. I then apply various things (horse hair, sprinkles of sugar, my dog's brushed out fur) to get interesting effects. Take a look at this naked raku pot to see an example.

Buddha Doesn't Appear To Be Tired But I Am

2009-03-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here he is, almost finished. Oh, my back! His is straight but mine needs a good, long rest.

Previously, I have been somewhat afraid of hands and feet (making them, that is), but this time I positively enjoy making those toes in particular. How round they are at their ends! How much character in the ball of a foot! Don't you agree?

Big Buddha Building Requires Five Hands Minimum

2009-03-12T19:26:00.000-07:00

...which I approximate by using my two hands, my teeth, an elbow, my daughter's hands and a few studio props within arm's reach as the situation allows.

A large-scale figure, made of thrown parts, is a tricky business! With this one I'm trying to make it lighter than the last few I made. And, foolish me, I'm hoping it's stronger as well. We'll see.... I would have taken a picture of the head being attached but that would have required a sixth and seventh hand at a particularly dicey moment.

I'll post more photos in the next day or so as all his parts become one.

Interesting....that in making a Buddha out of clay, the Buddha's posture is of paramount importance. If he doesn't sit up absolutely straight with his ears aligned to his shoulders, he is at serious risk of collapse. And haven't I seen this play out in the meditation room again and again when a meditator falls asleep, nearly keeling over, again and again?

Let's Be Even-Handed, Shall We?

2009-03-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

...or shall we not?

I've added another hand. But I must confess my process. I simply do not measure. I take a wad of clay and squeeze, shape, cut, pinch, etc, etc until a hand appears. I feel as petulant as a child saying, "I will not measure, I will not be even-handed!

I'm reminded of families and the life-long effort to be fair and even-handed. In cutting up the last brownie on the plate, the concept can take on a surgical precision. But in parceling out fair and equal love, how is that to be measured?

Now that Buddha has two hands, once he's fired I'll have to give him a bit of tissue to hold in one of them. Now there's an idea....

On the Other Hand...

2009-03-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

....wait a minute, where is the other hand anyway? Why haven't I made one?

Amazing, isn't it, how one can justify just about anything. I might say that I like the aesthetics of one hand only, riffing off of the koan "Why does Bodhidharma have no beard?" to "Why does Buddha have one hand?". But Buddha has two hands! Why leave one off?

Or I might say that the other hand isn't missing at all...it's only tucked within the Buddha's robe, hiding.

Or, looking a little closer, it might become apparent to me that I am simply not confident of my ability to make hands.

Surely one would do?

And I have to answer myself, "No! Not enough!"

So I've now added another. Perhaps (most likely!) neither one is perfect, but both together look much better now.

The Torn Bowl...Lone Survivor of a Firing

2009-03-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was such a beautiful day. The frogs were in fine chorus and the crocuses had fully claimed their patch of earth under the apple trees.

And I decided it was a perfect day for a raku firing. Wouldn't have to worry about the propane tank freezing up. No jacket required. A lovely day for raku!

The kiln fired up smooth and easy. Peeking in the peep hole as the temperature climbed near 1800, I could see the molten glaze surface smooth and shiny. All ready to go! So I lift up the kiln lid.....ah, at a little too much of an angle....crash! One pot was tipped over, which then fell into another and another. All of which broke, including the shelf that they sat on. Only this one obscure, purposeless bowl remained intact. It was supposed to be a bright turquoise crackle glaze. But hey, who's complaining? I like it. Yes I do.

It was a lovely day. And added to the growing aroma of spring, this morning there is a residue of smoke and ash as well. Ah, love that smell!

Exploring the Landscape of a Weeping Buddha in Clay

2009-02-24T11:02:00.000-08:00

In the background, the shimmering light of day, images of time and space, of equanimity. In the foreground, grief. The working studio has it all, does it not?

I was commissioned to explore a raku figure representing a weeping Buddha and so I begin....with meditation, daily life, and images that have inspired me. Immediately I thought of Kathe Kollwitz and tacked up some photos of her sculptures and drawings; these alongside a commonly carved representation of a weeping Buddha.

Here is my first attempt.

Oh, For the Occassional Simple Glorious Bowl!

2009-02-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

Have I not always loved them? Round, round, round. Empty, full. So fine to nest in the hand, and fill with something, anything...

And all this is to say nothing yet of the joy in throwing bowls. Yesterday I threw three sets of nesting bowls (four bowls to a set), for our formal Zen retreat meals. These three sets have a special flavor. The "flavorings" are always different, based on the conditions at hand. Yesterday's: 1) my good mood and 2) the clay's mood. I had a bag of over-dry, but very nice porcelainous stoneware clay. And I had a bucket of well-aged recycled clay (most excellent material for the clay's own sense of give-and-take). These two clays were wedged and kneaded together, making a fine, softish, pliant whole. In other words, the clay was in a good mood too.

With this, I was able to throw thin, delicately shaped walls of clay. Light, light, light. A delight.

I'm thinking I will glaze them all white....and perhaps add a whiff of color here, or there...

On Meeting, Greeting and Finally Giving Up On Expectations

2009-02-10T06:42:00.000-08:00

Expectation. An interesting word. Good? Bad? Essential? Extraneous?

A big part of the excitement of doing a raku firing is wondering how the results will come out. I play with the glazes and imagine the effects I might achieve. I play with the ratio of combustibles to air intake and air flow. I wonder and hope. And anticipate.....

....and inevitably the result is something else altogether.

This glazed and fired version of the little clouds and moon series that I did a while back disappointed me at first. It wasn't what I expected. I left it on the table for a couple of weeks, ignoring it. But then, as time went by, I'd glance at it. I'd pick it up and hold it out. I brushed off some lingering ash here and there. And now today, for some inexplicable reason, I'm thinking, you know...I like this."