I was thinking......

Developing an Intimate Relationship

by Tom Richards on 02/20/12

  I have been developing an intimate relationship with clay. It has taken me quite some time to do so. Figuring out who is leading, where the movement is going, appreciating that dance. I do not know how it all really started. One of my students asked me how did this start for me.  I really had no answer. I think I was supposed to be a potter - I just found out about it a little late.

It is all about making pots, lots and lots of pots, taking classes, going to workshops, making glazes, making clay [making clay at the KIA made a huge difference in my work], loading the kiln and firing the kiln; all of this folds into my relationship with clay.

And then there is being in that community of the artist - potters; talking, seeing, discussing clay. We will speak in the language of clay and will bore the heck out of some outsiders - not intentionally of course, it just happens.

Somewhere in the middle of this immersion - whether it is with intent or not - ideas and the expression of those ideas and the emotions show themselves in the work. It doesn't matter if it a set of coffee cups, a casserole or an Anagama vase. You become a potter. I became a potter.

Comments (0)