Making Marks....

I carry these ideas as I make. The view that I have of perfection. The love that I have for that incomplete spiral print and that mark expressing change.

I'm back in the studio.....I can't say it's been a natural transition to be making again. It always takes me time to regain that momentum I had during the preparation of an exhibition. Though now that it's been a few days, I feel content with the work at this point. I have been focusing on smaller items...whiskey cups and mugs have been my pottery of choice, until I am ready to continue my series of "Torn Vases." I'm exploring mark making as I was initially, and the pinching of the rims to thin them and give a loser and more hand-built quality. The idea of mark making reminds me of my favorite quality in a piece of pottery....the quality of process. It's one reason why wood firing has always appealed to me. A mark is an illustration of process.


While preparing for a class demo I made a slip print of a slab onto paper...and it had me thinking about marks, about completion, and about perfection. I have this conversation with students all the time as they test the limits of clay, learn the process of making, and eventually let go of the ideal image of "perfect." Why perfect? What is perfect? Does something have to be entirely complete to be perfect? That print I made isn't a complete spiral...but in my eyes it's far more interesting than if it was. It's beautiful...it's subtle...it's incomplete... It could not be any more perfect.

“Listen. To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story..."
~ Barbara Kingsolver 
'The Poisonwood Bible'