Paintings are on the wall, the gift shop under the stairs is waiting for the new book to arrive from the printer. I found a book I hand made 22 years ago, but just have the one so it won’t be in the gift shop.
The exhibition is less than two weeks away. I wondering if I have to change the wall back to red.
The kiln worked fine. This was an older piece that had been waiting inside the kiln. It was broken before I put it in, so I fired the two halves and put them together after. Duchamp used cracks in his work. it seemed a good idea.
I don’t glaze. But things look rather naked after firing. I used a few layers of urushi to give it some clothes. I’m trying different coatings for some of the other pieces.
Shinobazu Pond 14x10 cm. earth ware and urushi
It’s fun to play with mud.
It is a wonder how much a person can learn from Youtube. So many questions are answered on the net. But there is something to be said for direct transmission. It was the way the old Zen masters did it, and the high craftspeople in Japan.
I was updating my web site, looking at my bio, remembering my education. I studied in art classes at three different universities on the graduate and undergraduate levels. This was not a place for direct transmission.
The Art Student’s League of New York allowed students to choose their own teachers. If you went for a five day a week class the teacher came in Tuesdays and Thursdays and spoke, shouted, or said nothing at all. It was closer to a master student arrangement. And days the teacher was not there we had other students, some having studied for years under the same teacher. It was, and I expect still is a true studio school.
Henri Matisse was filmed as he was painting. The film shocked him. He said, “I thought each brush stroke was spontaneous, but I rehearse each one in the air before I make it!” and he did, making little unconscious movements of his brush that previewed each brush stroke he was about to make.
I saw this film of Yuma. He is what Matisse thought himself to be. Each of Yuma’s marks is direct and spontaneous. He makes his flourishes after making the mark, as if to celebrate it.
https://youtube.com/shorts/4WhIV3AlnZE?feature=share
