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Wayne
Higby (THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)
The studio
is the nucleus at the center of an artist’s examination of
experience. The studio is an arena –a place-a center of
gravity that draws to it, like a magnet, a multitude of
thoughts and feelings that are generated from an encounter
with life. Thoughts and feelings fuel the questions and
artist is compelled to answer. The studio is a site where
the investigation of questions is engaged with intense
desire-the desire to discover, to learn, to understand and
reveal truth.
A studio could be large or small. It could be a
warehouse, a factory of a tiny room, A bedroom or kitchen
could serve. A studio could be located in a small island
village in the Aegean Sea, in a garage in Toledo, Ohio, or
on the LuShan Mounitain, overlooking the Yangtze. A studio
could be a laptop computer or a sketchbook. Material is the
only essential necessity. Something to “use” is required-a
matrix with which and through which the alchemy of
transformation can occur.
Matter is the “stuff”of reality of reality that provides
the artist with the opportunity to realize insight. Through
material and the processes of working it the artist tests
perception, follows clues and uncovers answers. For the
artist making is a way of knowing. Each artist strives to
reside in the space between material fact and universal
mystery, allowing the energy of engagement to flow while
hoping , in the heat of doubt, that something Astonishing
will appear. The resulting“ work of art ”is , therefore, a
body of discovered knowledge that expands understanding and
forms the foundation for future investigation. The beginning
of artistic endeavor might logically be traced back to some
original source, but the end is never in sight. One thing
leads to another-forever. Moments of clarity do emerge and
they are embraced with celebration.
Bai Ming’s
book; world-famous Ceramic Artists’ Studios takes his
audience on a journey into the realm of the ceramic artist.
We find here in the pages of his book the actual places
where desire does battle with what is possible amid
frustration and determination, rolling pins, slab rollers,
potter’s wheel and fire. Each of the book’s entries records
an individual, a singular artist who shares the deep, common
need to make and communicate. Yet each artist is
impressively different.
Each individual is a complex composite of regional, global
and cultural different and each one a complicated weaving of
race, nationality, gender, circumstance and personal
beliefs, However, regardless of dissimilarity to the extreme
in some cases, the profound beauty of the art these artists
made is that it crosses boundaries to touch each of us with
its power to impart empathy. We discover through art a path
that leads to concern for one another and we open ourselves
to learn, As we look through art a path that leads to
concern for one another and we open outselves to learn. As
we look through the pages of Bai Ming’s book and quietly
for one another and we open ourselves to learn, As we look
through the pages of Bai Ming’s book and quietly find
ourselves in the private studio of each artist, we
telepathically cross the distance of separation and reach
out to each other in conversation.
The modern, individual artist ceramic studio is a
phenomena of the 20th century capitalistic system. The firm
establishment of Industrialization at the turnoff the 19th
century and the gradual rise of economic opportunity for a
broad segment of society eventually gave permission for the
“factory” oriented art of ceramics to find a home with the
individual artist. The availability of equipment and knowhow
critical to private, artistic production. Programs within
educational institutions played an important and knowhow
critical to private, artistic production, Programs within
educational institutions played an important role by
increasing the knowledge base and helping to grow an
informed population of artists interested in ceramics. In
the United States, Alfred University became a catalytic,
education center providing early in the 20th century the
pivotal technical intelligence geared to individual studio
practice. Today, in the United States, the National Council
on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) gathers an annual
crowd of 4000 or more ceramic artists to its yearly
conference. As many as 2000 of these individuals support
their own private ceramic studios, Worldwide the number of
individual ceramic studios has multiplied dramatically
triggering one of the most dynamic periods in ceramic art
history.
There are as many ways to overcome the material,
equipment and process issues as there are artists
impassioned by the need to explore ceramics, The way in
which each individual ceramic artist solves the problems of
making calls forth a signature style. Solving fundamental
technical problems is as critical to a ceramic artist’s
statement of being as any theory of ideas. The imaginative
mastering of limitation is close to the creative core of all
ceramic artists. The “masters” in fact , most surely are
those ceramic artists who have forged a distinctive
partnership with limitation finding within the very nature
of limits a secret formula for success. In the privacy of
the studio an affair with possibility takes place that
nurtures what is permissible into unexpected revelation.
Bai Ming concentrates his book on what he refers to as
World-Famous Ceramic Artist’s Studios. These studios belong
to masters of contemporary ceramic art. The work of these
artists has captured the attention of a global audience.
Rarely has this audience had the opportunity of peer into
the sanctum of the artist’s space. Bai Ming’s book offers’ a
tantalizing glimpse. We are invited to enter an
extraordinary vortex of imagination and fact.
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Wayne Higby |
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Professor Alfred Ceramics College, New York
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Summer 2003
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