Winter /Spring 2016 | Vol 44 No 1
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Studio Potter
SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE
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Note to issuu.com readers: This version contains only select articles from the full issue. Visit studiopotter.org to view or purchase the full issue.
studio potter
Christa Assad and Kevin Wickham. Razzle Dazzle Plywood: Green Gas Mask, 2015. Acrylic on plywood. 24 x 24 in. Photo by the artist.
Studio Potter
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Centered in studio practice, Studio Potter promotes discussion of technology, criticism, aesthetics, and history within the ceramics community. We are a non-profit organization celebrating over forty years of commitment to publishing the Studio Potter journal. We welcome hearing from potters, artists, scholars, educators, and others with special interests in writing and reporting on topics and events that matter in their personal and professional lives.
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Mission
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VOL 44 NO 1
SUSTAINABILITY
In This Issue COLUMNS
12 | Preserving Balance Clay Objects 38 | Sustainability: in a Changing World, Part II BY LORIE NELSON
BY KEITH LUEBKE
Tiny Monolith: 70 | The A Tribute to a Michael Simon Pot BY CHUCK DEWOLFE
HISTORY
22 | Remembering Norm Schulman 29 | On the Mend Really Going on in 49 | What's Nelson County, Virginia? BY ALAN WILLOUGHBY
BY ANDREW BASEMAN
BY LINDA L. CROWE
56 | Beyond the Havana Biennial Canadian Mantra: 61 | The Reuse, Repurpose, and Recycle! BY PAULA SIBRACK MARIAN
BY MARY ANN STEGGLES
Edmunds & Co., Salt glazed stoneware jug with cobalt slip-tailed decoration. 14 x 8 in. Photo by Joseph Szalay. From Staubach's article on page 44.
Q&A
Twenty years ago, when I was first thinking about being a teacher, when I was [my students'] age, I just walked right in and used stuff. I didn’t really think about it. It's a process of learning.
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Nataina Hume. Fruit Bowl, 2014. Cone 6 stoneware, oxidation. 11 x 2 in. Photo by the artist.
ARTIST NARRATIVES
BITS & PIECES
08 |The Path 33 | ReUpped Pots, or the Meaning 44 | ofSixObjects After Death
04 | Word from the Editor SP 07 | The Update
BY JANE HEROLD
BY CHRISTA ASSAD
BY SUZANNE STAUBACH
Home: Sustaining 64 | Finding a Creative Life BY FRANK SALIANI
66 | The Ethics of Making BY NATANIA HUME
Christa Assad and KevinWickham. Reconstruction: Refugees, detail, 2015. House paint on concrete. Photo by artist.
BY ELENOR WILSON
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Author Reading Recommendations
Jonathan Mess. Reclaim No. 26: Eastern and Western Cross Sections, 2015. Various reclaimed ceramic materials, solid cast and cut. 5.5 x 10 x 6 in. (left), 5.5 x 11 x 4.5 in. (right). Photo of artwork and artist by Kate Mess.
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Wicked Meltability: A Conversation With JONATHAN MESS
studiopotter.org
EDITOR Elenor Wilson editor@studiopotter.org ART DIRECTOR Zoe Pappenheimer zoe@zoedesignworks.com CIRCULATION Josh Speers membership@studiopotter.org COPYEDITOR Faye Wolfe PROOFREADERS Monique Desnoyers Josh Speers FOUNDING EDITOR Gerry Williams EDITOR EMERITA Mary Barringer PUBLISHING PO Box 1365 Northampton, MA 01061 413.585.5998 DESIGN Zoe Design Works www.zoedesignworks.com
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PRINTING Penmor Lithographers PO Box 2003 Lewiston, ME 04241-2003
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INDEXING The Studio Potter is indexed by Ebsco Art and Architecture Index (ebscohost.com), and distributed to Libraries digitally through Flipster (flipster.ebsco.com). BOARD OF DIRECTORS Hayne Bayless Joe Bova Elizabeth Cohen Ben Eberle Hollis Engley Fred Herbst Jonathan Kaplan Robbie Lobell David McBeth Jonathon McMillan Nancy Magnusson Josh Teplitzky CONTRIBUTING ADVISORS Michael Boylen Doug Casebeer Neil Castaldo Louise Allison Cort Steve Driver Leslie Ferrin Lynn Gervens Gary Hatcher Tiffany Hilton Doug Jeppesen Brian R. Jones Chris Lyons Mark Shapiro Julia Walther
Volume 44, Number 1, ISSN 0091-6641. Copyright 2016 by Studio Potter. Contents may not be reproduced without permission from Studio Potter. Studio Potter is published in January as the Winter/Spring issue and in July as the Summer/Fall issue. For permissions, corrections, or information about digital versions of back issues and articles, please contact the editor. The views and opinions expressed in the articles of Studio Potter journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the editor, the board of directors, or the Studio Potter organization.
WORD FROM THE EDITOR
2°C
It could be the difference between a vase that dons a gem of transparent green, perfectly pooled just above its foot, and one that when pulled from the shelf has a sharp, mangled base, leaving its disappointed maker with a shelf to grind and a new addition to her shard pile. But maybe 2°C rings a bell for you that is more along the lines of global carbon budget? If you’ve been spending too much time in the studio without NPR, let me help you chime in: this budget defines the total amount of carbon dioxide that humans can emit into the atmosphere and still keep global warming below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2 degrees Celsius. On December 12, 2015, as I was finalizing the articles in this issue, The New York Times reported that at the World Climate Summit in Paris “representatives of 195 nations reached a landmark accord that will, for the first time, commit nearly every country to lowering plant-warming greenhouse gas emissions to help stave off the most drastic effects of climate change.” The agreement is a baby step in the right direction, even if it seems agedly cantankerous, like one Baby Herman (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) would take. The crisis seems to still be in its infancy, but it is clearly not. Forty-one years ago, a little grassroots journal for studio potters published an “energy” issue
As readers of SP, you are part of the population that has the auspicious burden of making choices that affect our environments both local and global.
As readers of SP, you are part of the population that has the auspicious burden of making choices that affect our environments both local and global. But you are most likely already part of an anti-waste, pro-local culture and conscientious about your resources. In her foreword to Sustainable Ceramics, by Robert Harrison (Bloomsbury, 2013), the late Janet Mansfield wrote, “The practice of craft is perhaps the most sustainable of all the
The dialogue within the following pages delves even deeper into this subject. How we think and feel about ourselves, and the relationships we build, or break, have a ripple effect on our economic health and our environmental choices. A death in the family, a divorce, the loss of a job or a major client, a kiln catastrophe, or a new physical disability can easily make separating the paper and plastic from the rest of the trash seem inconsequential, or purchasing a hybrid vehicle no longer an option. But, as Christa Assad shows us, it can also be an opportunity to reengineer
personal and environmental sustainability as one and the same, making it the driving force of an artistic practice, not a mundane task within it. In addition to Staubach, Mess, and Assad, twelve more authors define sustainability in their stories of “what’s happening to us and what to do about it.” The Studio Potter organization has its story, too. The ebb and flow of economics and technology make sustainability a force to be reckoned with for an independent, nonprofit publisher in a niche market. As we digitize, add new programs and staff, and reimagine how SP can serve our community, we strive to make a case for the viability of print publication. This issue of Studio Potter is printed on recycled, responsibly sourced paper, and every issue can be passed down to the next generation, just like the pots from your kiln that escaped an extra 2°C.
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It’s no coincidence that June 1974 issue featured an entire section on alternative fuel sources for kilns (including solar power and methane gas from organic waste), immediately following a foreign oil embargo. And it is no coincidence that this issue on sustainability went to press just after world leaders came to an agreement about climate change.
arts. The work is timeless, made to last, often cherished and passed on through generations in the family. Materials are not wasted, but recycled, toxic materials are avoided, disposable products are not favoured.” Her statement proposes two different definitions of sustainability. In this issue, Suzanne Staubach amplifies the first – the endurance of ceramic objects throughout history – in a personal account of her heirlooms, and Jonathan Mess tackles the second – material resources – in explaining how he uses waste as his prime medium for making.
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including this message from the editors: “For potters one thing is certain: change and adjustment are ahead. Easy riding on an exotic variety of fuels and raw materials is at an end. The high cost of oil and gas, the scarcity of potash spar and zinc and copper – these are signs along the way. While proposals aren’t solutions, we hope these efforts will start a dialogue on what’s happening to us and what to do about it.”
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BITS & PIECES
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Vipoo Srivilasa, Prosperity, 2015. Cobalt pigment on porcelain and mix media. 12 x 12 x 1 in. An example of historical ceramic repair techniques in contemporary artworks. Photograph by Andrew Barcham. Image courtesy of the artist and Ferrin Contemporary. MORE ON PAGE 29
REMEMBERING
John Stephenson 1929 – 2015 Michigan sculptor and educator John Stephenson died on October 20, 2015. The following day, Paul Kotula (Paul Kotula Projects, Ferndale, Michigan) posted a lovely remembrance of John online. In it he writes, “[John] was the nucleus of an ever expanding and altering community of Michigan artists and educators working in clay . . . He had a deep respect for education and the role of the artist in society. Stephenson actively shared enthusiasm for all art forms and creative individuals.” John was also a prolific writer as evidenced by his bibliography in which the articles written by John exceed the number written about him. Several were published in Studio Potter, including: “Form and Color, A True Symbiotic Relationship,” Vol. 11, No. 2, 1983; “Potters on Color: John Stephenson,” Vol. 14, No. 2, 1986; “Perception – Inner and Outer Vision,” Vol. 17, No. 1, 1988; and “Time, Place, and a Taste of Clay,” Vol. 21, No. 1, 1992.
FROM HERE TO THERE VIRGINIA, CUBA, CANADA
This issue features articles that survey potters and artists in specific geographic areas, both domestic and abroad. In future issues and on studiopotter.org, we hope to expand the scope of writing not only beyond the boarders of the U.S., but also beyond North America to the global community of potters and craftspeople.
Look for more on John Stephenson in our 2016 Summer Issue. We welcome writing from those who would like to share their personal story about John.
Oops! a correction
oh hey, nice cover
from Vol. 43, No. 2
IMAGE NUMBER 5 ON Jeffery Lipton’s mark
Robbie Lobell mark
PAGE 10 was incorrectly
attributed to Jeffery Lipton. It is actually the mark of Robbie Lobell, appearing upsidedown. Both artists are cataloged correctly on The Marks Project website (themarksproject.org).
MARCH
The SP Update
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THE HEARTLAND TABLE JOIN US Tuesday, March 15th
in Kansas City for a special pre-NCECA event. Along with cooking demonstrations featuring Cook on Clay flameware pots, guests will enjoy a the culinary delights of six area chefs paired with hand-crafted cocktails and locally brewed beer, as well as a sale of tableware from the mid-country’s finest potters. See the back page of this issue for more information, or visit cookonclay.com.
March 16-19 NCECA VISIT the Studio Potter at
COMING SOON ... The new studiopotter.org. Our new website will be launched soon. Stay tuned through your monthly SP e-newsletter.
Resource Hall Table T08 – get special giveaways and deals on membership.
On the cover: The showroom of Kirk Creed outside Gimli, Manitoba, demonstrates his use of found objects to serve as shelves and props. June, 2015. Photo by Mary Ann Steggles. More, p. 61.
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ARTIST NARRATIVE
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Jane Herold throwing pots in her studio, Palisades, New York. Photo by Susan Stava, 2015.
JANE HEROLD
ARTIST NARRATIVE
THE PATH
Over the last three years, however, I’ve been making dishes for restaurants in collaboration with chefs, and my point of view has changed. And left me with a dilemma. Pots occupy space in the same way sculpture does, and I’ve always wanted my work to have a strong, commanding, sculptural “rightness” and presence. Chefs are not looking for that. They are looking for canvases and frames for
their artwork: the food they create. The pots that best serve them are simple and mostly undecorated. Working with chefs has been a process of distillation to the bare essentials, which in pottery turns out to be primarily form (with a touch of color and texture). Form is the essence of all pots, of course, as any potter knows; in making dishes for chefs, there has been a paring away of the individual, the ego, and the specific, which comes across so strongly through decoration. The pots are less individually lovable to me, but in the sense of attractively serving food, they are more useful. This interchangeability of pots goes against everything I’ve known and loved and worked toward for thirty-five years. Unloading a kiln
has always been a pleasure, sorting through the pots, picking out favorites in which form, firing, and intent have all come together just so. Unloading a whole kiln of undecorated plates doesn’t invite that same scrutiny and celebration. Is there a way to make each plate compellingly beautiful, even if it is undecorated or even “plain” white? There must be. Wood firing, with its nuances of color and surface would help; there are no plain pots in a good wood firing. The thing is, my restaurant pots are “whole” and finished only with food on them; it is then that they are beautiful. After experiencing a meal on one of my plates, one chef said, “The same food on a commercial plate would look like a mistake.”
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y definition of “useful” keeps evolving. I’ve long believed that a pot’s true usefulness lies in its ability to generate caring, to inspire a cook to greater effort, to offer comfort and company in a cup of tea, to cause someone to pause and take note of a particular moment on a particular day. In other words, to alter people’s consciousness, however subtly.
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Jane Herold. Appetizer Plate, 2015. Stoneware with black ash glaze. 0.5 x 9 in. Food by Bryce Shuman of Betony. Photo by Signe Birck. Jane Herold. Dinner Plate, 2015. Stoneware with white glaze. 0.5 x 11 in. Food by Bryce Shuman of Betony. Photo by Signe Birck.
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The same food on a commercial plate would look like a mistake.
So the change that has to happen is a change in me. Embracing this new way of working requires a letting-go of ego and of the need and desire to express and indulge myself. I am not a peasant potter in the 1600s, though in some ways I’m becoming more and more that person. The paring away, the whittling down, the removal of excess – in me and in the pots – is happening. Will I look back and be happy with what I’ve done? Will these very simple, humble, undecorated pots eventually give me that same emotional charge that my older, decorated pots do? And if they don’t, will this nonattachment matter? Does it diminish their beauty in any way? Or is this the path toward the kind of beauty so many potters recognize in very old rice bowls, but so few contemporary potters actually manage to create?
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BIO Jane Herold has been making wheel-thrown, wood-fired dinnerware and other pottery for over thirty years in Palisades, New York. Recently, she has begun gas firing as well. All of her work is intended for everyday use and making every meal a pleasure. Jane was Michael Cardew’s last apprentice. CONTACT 67A Ludlow Lane Palisades, NY 10964 E. jane.herold@gmail.com W. janeherold.com Video: vimeo.com/142510711
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serving a purpose. None of the pots I love the most were made with “art” and “sculpture” in mind.
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This change in how I work forces me into an even more humble category of being – instead of making art, I’m making canvasses and frames for someone else’s art – and sometimes this change frightens me. (Was my earlier acceptance of the humility of the potter’s art just lip service?) And yet, the dishes I make transform the experience of dining. The same food would not be as enticing without them. Is that enough? To keep a potter happy? It ought to be. The pots I most admire – rice bowls from Korea, earthenware jugs, pie plates and milk pans from England – were made quickly in the same spirit of
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ANDREW BASEMAN
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it were not for the proverbial bull in a china shop, I would have nothing to collect or write about. Luckily for me and other collectors of antiques with inventive repairs (also known as make-do’s) bulls have wreaked havoc in china shops for ages. Wounded survivors are still to be found, brought back to life by their original owners, tinkers and menders decades ago. With wood bases, tin handles, and metal staples, these repairers have unintentionally transformed broken pottery that could have ended up in a trash collector’s bin into art. THE COLLECTION
My next encounter with stapled ceramics occurred while I was vacationing in London in the early 1990s. Having just landed
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There was something about this humble dish separated from the others, that caught my attention. Having no idea that one could staple anything other than paper, I wondered, “How could a ceramic plate, of all things, be stapled together?”
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Above: A cupboard in Andrew Baseman’s childhood home containing mostly blue and white Chinese export porcelain. Photograph taken in the mid-70s.
My passion for collecting these antique orphans began at an early age. I grew up in a house furnished with antiques, including cupboards filled with early Chinese porcelain and English pottery. Although most pieces were in excellent condition, I remember being drawn to a small, cracked plate tucked inside one of the cupboards, miraculously held together with a few small metal staples.
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HISTORY
Saucer, mid-1600s. Chinese porcelain with blue underglaze. Clobbered in the mid-1700s with red and green overglaze enamel. All photos by author.
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English copper lustre jug, 1840. Pink lustre greyhound detail, later repaired with a tin handle and band.
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Canary mug, 1820. Forty-six staples.
the night before, I stumbled down Portobello Road in a jet-lagged state and wandered into a crowded antiques stall. There I spotted a small, hexagonal Chinese porcelain cup and saucer from the early 1700s, both pieces riddled with metal staples. It took me a moment to make the connection between this plate and the one I had spotted years ago in our china cupboard. Explaining that this set was undesirable in its damaged condition, the dealer charged me ÂŁ5 (about $7) for both pieces; she was thrilled to get rid of them. Realizing that I just found a way to afford ceramics similar to the ones I had admired in my youth, I spent the rest of my trip seeking out other examples. That day I also purchased an English copper lustre jug, a globular Chinese export teapot, and a sauceboat, each with metal replacement handles, each unique and affordable. I remember feeling the exhilaration that antiques collectors must get when they discover something new and exciting, and before I knew it, a new obsession was born! Within a few years I had assembled a modest collection. As I searched for more examples, I realized that many dealers viewed antiques with early repairs as pariahs to be delegated to the bargain shelf or kept hidden away at home like a shunned character in a Victorian novel. Repaired pieces were worthy only of the rubbish heap to other dealers, and if I had dared ask one of them, “Do you have any stapled plates?â€? I certainly would have been thrown out of the shop.
HISTORY
In 2010 I created a blog, Past Imperfect: The Art of Inventive Repair, to showcase my castaways, which led to my being contacted by collectors from around the world who shared my passion. I was, and still am, moved by the poignancy of the repairs and admire the tenacity of these scrappy survivors, along with the ingenuity and imagination of the repairers. As each piece is unique and, typically, unsigned, I enjoy speculating on who the original owner was, how the piece broke, who fixed it, and how many homes it lived in prior to my acquiring it.
After much deliberation with other collectors, dealers, scholars, and curators, I use the term make-do to describe the type of repair one would do at home or in their workplace such as a wood replacement base on a broken oil lamp or goblet. This is the purest form of “making do with what you have” and the essence of Yankee ingenuity. My favorite quick fix, which I see often, is a replacement base for a glass laboratory beaker. This form of repair was most likely done by chemists in their labs, who simply placed the intact top portion of a broken beaker into a discarded tin lid filled with wet plaster. When the plaster dried, a new base was born. It’s not the most elegant repair job, but it was a quick and efficient way to resolve a mishap, to render the beaker usable again in about thirty minutes.
The wide spectrum of repairs astonishes me, and I take great delight in coming across offbeat methods I haven’t seen before. For example, I bought a single, unremarkable English brass candlestick from the 1800s that I wouldn’t have given a second glance if it hadn’t been for its extraordinary repair. In place of a brass base it has a carved coconut shell. Clearly this contrivance was done at home, and the clever repairer used a material at hand. Metal replacement spouts on teapots are one of the most common inventive repairs I encounter. I have dozens of examples, ranging
DIFFERENT TYPES OF REPAIR
Not every piece of broken porcelain or pottery could be repaired at home. When the handle to a jug or teapot broke off, it was brought to the local metalsmith to make a metal replacement, using tin, iron, brass, or copper. These “tinker repairs” include simple teapot spout caps, replacement lids, and intricate support straps securing anything from cracked glass jars to large stoneware
crocks. I’m delighted by the variations of loop handles on jugs and teapots in my collection. Some are almost crudely made, while others are more refined, with crimped edges and thumb and finger supports for a more comfortable grip. Professional restoration best describes staple repairs of ceramics by skilled china menders. Staple, also known as rivet, repair is seen on ceramics from many cultures around the world. Most of it was done by itinerant repairers, who set up with their minimal tools on the side of the road. Staple repair is the most common type of repair found on antique ceramics (and the most discussed), with early examples dating back to the first century AD. If I had a penny for every time someone asked me, “How did they do that?” I’d be able to afford the original Portland Vase. But I certainly can relate to people’s fascination with stapled ceramics, and I never stop marveling at the skillfulness and steadiness of the hand that repaired a piece of thin-walled porcelain. Here’s a simple breakdown of how it was done. The broken pieces were fitted together and held tightly in place with twine. A wooden bow with a diamond-tipped drill bit was looped around a string and pulled back and forth to make tiny holes on the pieces to be joined. A small length of rigid wire was cut and hammered on an iron anvil to form a small staple, its ends slightly tapering inward. The finished staple was heated and gently tapped into the holes on the side of the piece. When the staple cooled, it formed a tight bond, and the crack was stabilized. I have teapots, mugs, and cups that were re-
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from crudely cut tin to ornately chased silver. I once purchased a porcelain teapot with a spout that seemed a typical metal replacement, but as I unpacked it, I discovered that it was the remains of a 19th-century sterling silver thimble. What an ingenious solution: repurposing the thimble to save two precious, much-used household objects.
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Tired of having doors nearly slammed in my face, I started to carry photos of examples from my collection, each showing a different type of repair. These visuals allowed me to enlighten suspicious dealers, many of whom eventually warmed to the idea that there was a market for stapled plates after all. Slowly I found a small but mighty band of dealers and collectors who fully embraced the art of inventive repairs.
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HISTORY
BIO Andrew Baseman is an interior designer, author and set decorator for film and television with a passion for antiques and collecting. His interior design firm, Andrew Baseman Design, is located in NYC, and is filled with inspirational objects including volumes of early fabric swatch books, folk art, paintings and ceramics.
paired with staples more than 200 hundred years ago, and they still hold liquid today. While popular for centuries, staple repair fell out of favor during the 1950s. With the invention of better quality glues, adhesives, and epoxies, repairers could now render breaks invisible, and dealers could sell restored pieces with imperceptible fixes, never again having to look at ceramics riddled with bits of metal. Pity.
Over the centuries, the wealthy employed silversmiths, jewelers, and sculptors to BLOG andrewbaseman.com/blog repair their broken ceramics. Many of these examples have survived, as the pieces INSTAGRAM: themselves are rare, and they can be seen in @andrewbaseman museums and private collections worldwide. The most common of these uncommon examples are solid silver replacement handles, spouts and lids on teapots and jugs, many with hallmarks, which verify the maker and date the repair. More unusual and hard to come by are ivory replacement limbs and missing parts on figurines, finely carved by sculptors. CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
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Over the past couple of years, I have noticed a surprising shift toward an acceptance and appreciation of ceramics with inventive
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repairs. In the fall of 2014, at ArtKamp, a residency program in Cummington, Massachusetts, led by Vipoo Srivilasa and hosted by Leslie Ferrin, I showed examples from my collection to a wonderful and enthusiastic group of artists, most of whom had never before seen early repairs on ceramics. By the time photos of stapled ceramic plates appeared, the crowd was audibly excited. Many approached me at the end of my talk, asking such questions as “Who is doing this type of repair today?” “How can I fix my own broken pieces?” and “How do you staple ceramics?” I was thrilled to have a new and eager audience of contemporary artists who seemed ready to bring the art of inventive repair into the 21st century. A few months later, covering the annual New York Ceramic & Glass Fair for my blog, I found a handful of pieces of antique Chinese porcelain and English pottery with inventive repairs, including replaced handles, spouts, and lids. By now, finding examples in the booths of some of the world’s leading ceramics dealers is gratifying but not uncommon. At Leslie Ferrin’s booth of contemporary ceramics, though, I was surprised and thrilled to find a couple of inventively repaired ceramics made by two of the artists who had come to my
ArtKamp lecture. Both Mara Superior and Frances Palmer told me that I had inspired them to repair their broken pieces, and the results were stunning. Rather than just glue fragments back together, they had embraced and embellished the imperfections. Also at the fair were works by Vipoo Srivilasa, who has incorporated antique repair methods into his whimsical figures, and by Stephen Bowers, some of whose lush designs have tromp l’oeil “broken” elements. Paul Scott and Bouke de Vries, more than any other ceramic artists I know, have created masterpieces by mixing broken antique ceramics with contemporary pieces, often blurring the line between old and new. Since then, I have come upon many more contemporary artists – Adam T. Lefebvre, Penny Byrne, and Sudarshan Shetty – who not only repair their broken ceramics using the early methods but also design pieces with intentional repairs. Clearly, the tide is turning; more and more artists, collectors, and dealers are embracing the broken and mended, making what was once considered old and unwanted seem fresh and new.
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HISTORY
At
the 2003 NCECA conference Borders in Flux in San Diego, a group of Cuban potters – Antonio Lewis from the Wifredo Lam Center of Contemporary Art (Centro de arte Contemporáneo Wilfredo Lam) and his colleagues – spoke to American ceramic artists. The group traveled from Cuba to the United States with the blessings of both countries; this kind of exchange, however, was rare at the time, because of U.S. restrictions.
LEFT: Osmany Betancourt. Espejo (Mirror), detail, 2003. El Museo de Cerámica. Life-size figures depict the struggle of the Cuban people. Photos by author.
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RIGHT: Pre-embargo American car.
In late 2014, President Obama’s announcement of loosening travel restrictions and reopening embassies in Havana and Washington D.C. pushed Cuban-American political news to the front burner. I sensed the time was ripe to travel to Cuba, and I wanted to see it before any dramatic changes took hold. Obama had worked his magic to enable Americans to fly directly from the States, although we still had to write research grants to obtain visas. In partnership with Authentic Cuba Travel, I organized a
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I found this story of island artists cut off from a country less than a hundred miles away heartfelt. In 1999, I’d read an issue of Studio Potter that highlighted the Cuban ceramic scene, with articles by Kathryn Holt, Joel Bennett, and Catherine Merrill. Long before I’d attended the NCECA conference and read those articles, though, Cuban culture had piqued my curiosity. Much earlier, castanets from my parents’ cruise to Havana in the 1950s, and my having had a Cuban boyfriend had given rise to a desire to visit there.
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HISTORY
Ceramic sign outside of El Museo de Cerámica in Calle Mercaderes, Habana Vieja. Photo by author.
group of potters, artists and collectors to attend one week of the month-long 12th Havana Biennial in May 2015. Would we be able to use credit cards? Or dollars? Could we bring back cigars? No, no, and yes.
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The Biennial supplied a visible platform for the political drama between Cuba and the United States. The eyes of the art world were on Havana. Held at La Cabaña, the colonial fortress complex in Havana Harbor, the Biennial was in the news daily. Originally built to keep pirates at bay, the 500-year-old former fortress was used as a jail and an execution site during the Cuban Revolution. Geared toward art dealers and collectors from outside Cuba, most of the installation art had political themes – the embargo, isolation, and the revolution – all the while underscoring Cuban ingenuity.
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I
found few ceramic artworks at the Biennial, but El Museo de Ceramica in Old Havana (La Habana Vieja) is a haven for clay lovers. As was true of other museums in developing countries I have visited, the museum offers no tours, gift shop, post-
cards, or catalogues, but first-rate pottery and sculpture, displayed chronologically, filled the historic building. I was most impressed by a ceramic sculpture, Espejo (Mirror), by Osmany Betancourt, made in 2003. It spoke of the suffering and the struggle of the Cuban people through the revolution, the break with the Soviets, and the embargo. Osmany, known locally as Lolo, is a 1992 graduate of Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), the national art school, and a beloved artist in Cuba who has received international recognition.1 Down the street from the museum, I found the studio of Amelia Carballo and Angel Norniella. They are among a group of potters who had worked on La Isla de Juventud, a magnet for ceramic artists because of its clay pits and collaborative atmosphere. Their studio has a small gallery that sells work of their colleagues. When visiting, it is customary for foreigners to bring practical presents, objects unavailable in Cuba. Amelia and Angel graciously accepted my gifts of ceramic tools, courtesy of Michael Sherrill, and back issues of Studio Potter.2 Our next stop was the ISA, an outstanding architectural and cultural achievement of the Cuban Revolution. Its vaulted brick and terra-cotta structures stand on the former site of a Havana country club. Conceived and founded by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in 1961, ISA reflects the excitement and commitment of the nascent Cuban Revolution. The school’s branches are the primary incubator for Cuba’s
artists, actors, musicians, and dancers. Competition for entrance is fierce: fifteen out of 800 to 1,000 candidates are admitted to the free four-to-six-year program with guaranteed paid work for two years after graduation, according to Sonja Ortega, an ISA spokesperson. (Both education and health care are free in Cuba.) In its well-appointed clay studio, we visited with ceramics professors Rolando Pagés Molina and the more well-known Carlos Alberto Rodrigues. Both were happy to receive our gifts of tools and magazines. Carlos’s dollfaced sculptures are seen in high-end hotels in Havana. There are two full-time professors but only five full-time ceramics students in the Departmento de Plastica. We were impressed with the breadth of disciplines practiced by the ISA visual art students. John DiCicco, retired ceramics professor at Providence College, Rhode Island, admired the evidence of the students’ classical training in the areas of color, shading, perspective, and proportion. We viewed a graduating student’s painting show; the artistic skill was breathtaking. Our group also visited several artists’ inhome studios and small galleries. Karlos Pérez, a 25-year-old painter trained at ISA, had a gallery show called “Memorias Impersonales.” His airbrushed paintings resemble old, damaged photographs of children leaving Cuba during Operation Pedro Pan.3 In the 1960s, parents fearful of Communist indoctrination and loss of their parental authority, sent their children to the United
Dualities are pervasive in Cuban society. We saw evidence of this in the Havana art scene. The Biennial galleries in La Cabaña were open only to paying art tourists, but the sculptures erected for the Biennial along the Malecón sea wall were accessible to the public. The wall is affectionately known as the gran sofá, or “long couch” – people of all ages lounge there – and many like to walk along it when out for their traditional evening strolls. (The hotels and restaurants for foreigners are air-conditioned, but Cuban houses are not.)
CUP can be used to pay for utilities and food at the markets. According to Bloomberg Business, Raul Castro has promised to do away with the dual monetary system.4
Yet another duality lies in the monetary system. Cuba has two currencies, the Cuban peso (CUP) and the Convertible Cuban Peso (CUC); neither is convertible in foreign exchange markets. During our trip, there was a ten percent penalty for changing dollars. We brought euros, which offered a better exchange rate. The CUC is pegged to the dollar, and most goods are valued in that currency, but the majority of people in Cuba are paid in CUP. Any Cuban with a job related to tourism earns tips in CUC, which can be used to buy “nonessentials,” such as building materials, art supplies, and technology, whereas only
Mechanics have learned to fashion spare parts for 1950s-era American cars because there is no alternative.6 Few buildings are restored or even maintained. The embargo prevents the import of construction materials from the U.S. Sometimes in what looks like an abandoned building, you will see laundry hanging to dry. The masonry and paint are peeling, revealing decades of colors, textures, and the decor of past inhabitants. The patina is distinctive and decorative to a tourist’s eye. But Cubans would say things are really rundown, and they long for the time when they can afford to repair and remodel.
Havana is a city frozen in time, a snapshot from the 1950s. Since the American embargo and the withdrawal of Soviet support, Cubans have been obliged to rely on their ingenuity to make do. Paula Cook, a potter from Ridgefield, Connecticut, pointed out the jerry-rigged wires for illegal TV reception. On a day trip to Vinales, in Cuba’s western province of Pinar del Rio, we saw oxen plowing tobacco fields. (Since the fall of the Soviet Union, farmers have had little fuel to power tractors.) After 1990, during the Special Period, the island transitioned from large industrial farms to small organic farms and urban gardens.5
Studio Potter
It is curious that the Castro regimes have turned a blind eye to artists’ not-so-subtle criticism. It seems that criticism by artists is good for Cuban communism and good for business. After the first Havana Biennial in 1984, the world discovered the artistic achievements and reasonable prices of Cuban artists. Not so coincidentally, this was after the withdrawal of Russian subsidies to Cuba, in the early 1990s, known as the Special Period. Since then, as Cuba has enjoyed profits from international art sales, artists have become a privileged class, making more money than doctors.
Another sign of the dual nature of Cuba is the growing presence of Paladares, private owned restaurants, which started to appear about ten years ago, when Raul Castro relaxed the rules of private ownership. Typically at first a few tables in one room of a home, a paladar might now occupy the top floor of an apartment building or an entire restored building. The service and the menus of paladares rival those of high-end restaurants in the United States. Most Cubans cannot afford to dine in a paladar or a state-run restaurant, or even to buy the type of food served in one, but they can make good money being a chef, waiter, busboy, or musician. Almost every restaurant – and street corner – has musicians, most selling their CDs. Many of the people in my group went home with a large collection of Cuban music.
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States to escape the revolution. Although it was a heartbreaking experience for them at the time, most children were eventually reunited with parents or relatives in the United States. His paintings are critical of the revolution but widely purchased by foreigners, bringing in much-needed income to Pérez and Cuba.
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HISTORY
BIO Paula Sibrack Marian, a potter for more than forty years, lived in Latin America and studied textiles in Bogota, Colombia. Through her travels, Paula continues her commitment to her clay work. She recently retired as head of the art department at New Milford High School, Connecticut. She is a member of Connecticut Clay Artists, a trustee of the National K12 Ceramic Exhibition, and past board member of Studio Potter. All opinions and interpretations of art are Paula’s. CONTACT W. paulamarian.com/ mapa-de-cuba E. paulamarian1@mac. com
Although the fervor of the Cuban Revolution has cooled, there are still images of political and revolutionary heroes, especially on buildings and roadside billboards. Fidel and Che are revered like rock stars. Cuba has slowly allowed privatization not only of restaurants but also of stores and B&B-style accommodations. In Havana, Airbnb has begun to take hold, but tourists should do their research and make reservations before their arrival on the island, since Internet access is sketchy, sporadic, and expensive. Upon our return home, Karen Pinto, a potter and teacher from Newtown, Connecticut, in our group, said that she looked forward to a time when the United States and Cuba have open relations again, but she hoped that Cuba does not become overrun with corruption and corporate greed. Although embassies have reopened in Havana and Miami, the embargo will most likely remain in place until a more balanced Congress is elected. But doors have opened for Cuban artists. More are travel-
ing to the United States because of relaxed immigration and educational exchanges than have in the past half-century. And their artwork is commanding higher prices than ever before. Karen said, “I don’t know how reparations could ever be made to the people who lost everything in the revolution. I think it will take the emergence of the younger generations to write a new history for Cuba.” Now that Jet Blue is flying directly to Havana and American cruise ships are docking again in Havana port, tourists will visit in larger numbers. I dread that the place will be Disney-ized, and the decorative patina will be patched up and sugar-coated, but I’m also optimistic that Cubans will not lose their sense of artistic adventure, pioneer spirit, can-do attitude, and ingenuity. When I left, I told my guide that I feared that the next time I visited, the place would not look the same. She said, “I hope not.”
Endnotes
2. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0fWdckX4jU for a video of Amelia Carballo, with Angel Norniella, throwing a pot with Mudtools in the Terracotta Studio. 3. The book Waiting for Snow in Havana, by Carlos Eire, recalls Operation Pedro Pan. 4. See Bloomberg Business Online (bloomberg.com), “Cuba to End Dual Currency System as Castro Seeks Growth,” by Eric Sabo, Oct. 22, 2013.
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Studio Potter
1. See Lolo’s website: osmanybetancourt.com for more examples of his artwork.
5. See the film The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006), directed by Faith Morgan.
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6. See Yank Tanks (2002), directed by David Schendel.
Amelia Carballo and her husband, Angel Norniella (not pictured), working in their Terracotta studio during Marian’s visit. Photo by Karen Pinto.
ARTIST NARRATIVE
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Studio Potter
Frank Saliani, Vase with Sunflowers, 2014. Colored, cast and assembled porcelain, cone 6 oxidation. 5 x 5 x 3 in. Photo by artist.
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F
or a long time, the question of sustainability for me was largely a question of how to sustain myself as an artist. After securing the basics like food, water, and shelter, there was always the matter of how to secure the space, the time, and the means to maintain a studio practice. Like many artists, the answer I settled on was to build my life around residencies, which – at its best – was a wonderful way to live. Residencies provided me with what I thought I needed to makes ends meet artistically: access to the means – tools and equipment – to keep on making and to the ceramics community at large. On the other hand, constantly pursuing residencies was very disruptive. It meant moving from place to place and uprooting my life many times. I found it difficult to build anything meant to last, and simply focused on maintaining, which is a very different concept from sustaining.
Finding Home Sustaining a Creative Life BY FRANK SALIANI
Finally in 2011, after nearly a decade of residencies, I went in search of a permanent home. In retrospect, this was not as much a conscious move toward sustainability as it was an act of surrender. Although I could not have articulated what was going on with me at the time, the years I had spent moving around had left me feeling uncentered as an artist and as an individual. I desperately needed to find firmer ground. I needed a place where I could put down roots. So one day I decided to stop moving. And, to my surprise, I found myself back in the neighborhood that many of my family members
called home for generations: a small, quiet, very unhip, as-yet-undiscovered neighborhood in south Brooklyn. It is a place where 1940s row houses share the street with new condominiums, old Victorians, and low-income housing developments. It is a place I never imagined myself living, yet there was space for me to live and to work in my own studio. There was space for a garden and a kiln and to build a life worth sustaining. When I decided to make a different choice with respect to my immediate environment, all of my choices began to change, not only my choices as an artist, but also the choices made with respect to my role as a member of greater society, and to the environment we all share. Although the shift did not happen overnight, it was undeniable and directly related to my decision to plant myself in one, fixed place and to begin investing time and care in it.
My method of firing work has also changed. About fifteen years ago, I switched to firing in an electric kiln because results from electric kilns are more consistent from place to place
Had I not moved to a place where I am rubbing elbows with 8.5 million people, I would probably still be getting my electricity from those sources. But here I see very clearly how one person’s actions contribute to the incredible, collective impact humans have on the world. For that reason, I signed up through my local utility provider to purchase renewable sources of power; now my studio runs on wind energy. It costs slightly more, but it is a small price to pay for supporting the kinds of change I would like to see our society make. Someday I hope to install solar panels for the same reason. Long-term planning comes much more easily now that I’ve put down roots – quite literally, too: I planted a garden shortly after I moved in. Since then, I have installed rainwater collection barrels, which supply the garden with fresh water and syphon off some of the storm runoff during downpours. My neighbors’ yard waste, waste that used to end up in landfills, now goes into my compost bin. It’s trans-
formed into amazing soil for the garden, which in turn yields more food for me and my family. Although water collection systems, gardening, and composting may seem tangential to the work an artist does, they are part of the same narrative, part of a whole. The garden provides much-needed time away from the studio, so I can think and work in a different way and come back to my work refreshed. Had I not chosen to rethink how I care for my immediate environment and to establish a consistent space for my artistic practice, I would not have developed the perspective necessary to reevaluate my relationship to the world and my place in it and to make environmentally conscious choices. As ceramists, we all know that a very small change in conditions can create large-scale effects. “Think globally, act locally” has become something of a cliché, but its underlying principle is still true: we must understand the impact our actions have on the world around us. By applying this principle and focusing on small changes, I have created a way of life that I hope will sustain me and my community long term. By taking responsibility for my space I have begun to see the incredible importance we all must place on taking responsibility for our individual actions, for our environment and, ultimately, for one another.
BIO Frank Saliani is a sculptor, potter, tilemaker, gardener, and concerned citizen of the world. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, daughter, and little white dog. CONTACT E. frank@20thavenue. studios.com W. 20thavenuestudios.com
Studio Potter
I quickly saw that just this one small shift in my practice had an impact not only on my new home (in the form of lots of tile for renovating the kitchen), but on the environment as well. I had previously thought I had a good grasp on just how much material I was flushing down the drain, so I was shocked to realize just how much I had dumped into the water system over the years. This type of waste adds up, but it was easy to overlook when I was always moving.
than those from atmospheric kilns. At that time, I knew that a significant portion of our country’s electricity was generated from coal, but at that point, I didn’t really care. The problems associated with global warming were not all that clear to me then, and ocean acidification wasn’t even a theory.
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At first, the shift was subtle and was related directly to my work practices. Because my studio space is in an old rowhouse with old pipes, I knew that letting any clay make its way down the drain could be disastrous. So I decided to forgo slip traps and decant all my wastewater in a five-gallon bucket instead. Now, I collect all of my wastewater during the day, and the next morning I pour off the clear water, which passes down the drain just fine. Once I have a five-gallon bucket full of slurry, I dry it on a plaster slab. In the beginning, I took it to the curb with the rest of the trash. It took a few buckets of slurry before I decided to start sieving it and then using it to press tiles.
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BITS & PIECES STUDIO POTTER'S
Author Reading Recommendations Christov-Bakargiev, Carolyn, ed. Arte Povera. London: Phaidon, 2005.
Parsons, C. S. M. and F. H. Curl. China Mending and Restoration. 1st ed. London, UK: Faber & Faber, 1963.
Out of the Fire. Feature Documentary. Directed by Courtenay Singer. Starring Kevin Crowe and Krista Loomans. 2013. ceramicartsdaily.org
Cohen, Jean-Louise., and G. Martin Moeller, eds. Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete. n.p.: Birkäuser Architecture, June 2006.
Rickard, Jonathan Shaw. Mocha and Related Dipped Wares, 1770-1939. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2006.
Pirsig, Robert. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. 1974. Reprint, n.p.: Bantam New Age Books, October 1981.
Jacob, Mary Jane., and Michelle Grabner, eds. The Studio Reader: On the Space of Artists. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
CROWE
Berry, Wendell. What Are People For?. 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, May 2010.
Snyder, Gary. Axe Handles. 1983. Reprint. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, January 2005.
Koren, Leonard. Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers. Berkley, CA: Stone Bridge, 1994.
Crawford, Matthew. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. New York, NY: The Penguin Press, 2009.
Troy, Jack. Calling the Planet Home. Spring Mills, PA: Fell/Design, 2003.
Rotzler, Willy. Constructive Concepts: A History of Constructive Art from Cubanism to the Present. 1977. Reprint. n.p.: Rizzoli, 1989.
Dodd, Mike. An Autobiography of Sorts. Brook, Hampshire, UK: Canterton Books, 2004.
Cardew, Michael. Pioneer Pottery. 1969. Reprint. n.p.: Longman, 1974.
Tazzi, Pier Luigi, Peter Schjeldal, and Penelope Curtis. Richard Deacon. London: Phaidon, 2000.
Doyle, Mike. Mink River. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2010.
BASEMAN
Middleton, Harry. The Earth is Enough: Growing Up in a World of Flyfishing, Trout & Old Men. 1989. Rev. ed., Boulder, Colorado, CO: Pruett Publishing Company, January 1996.
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Studio Potter
ASSAD
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Hume, Ivor Noel. If These Pots Could Talk: Collecting 2,000 Years of British Household Pottery. Milwaukee, WI: Chipstone Foundation, 2001.
HEROLD
Cary, Joyce. The Horse’s Mouth. 1944. Reprint. New York, NY: New York Review of Books, 1999. Homer. The Odyssey. Edited by D. C. H. Rieu. Translated by E. V. Rieu. n.p.: Penguin Group, 2010. Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, November 2014.
HUME
MARIAN
Adamson, Glenn. The Craft Reader. Oxford, UK: Berg, 2010.
Eire, Carlos M. N. Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy. New York: Free Press, 2004.
Adamson, Glenn. Thinking Through Craft. Oxford, UK: Berg, 2007.
SALIANI
Cooper, Emmanuel, ed. The Ceramics Book. London: Ceramic Review, 2006.
Greenblatt, Stephen. The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. 1st ed. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 2011.
Cooper, Emmanuel. Lucie Rie: Modernist Potter. 12th ed. n.p. Yale University Press, 2012. De Waal, Edmund. The Pot Book. Edited by Claudia Clare. New York, NY.: Phaidon, 2011. Lovell, Sophie. Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible. n.p.: Phaidon, June 2011. Papanek, Victor. Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. n.p.: Academy Chicago, 1984.
FUNCTION / ARCHITECTURE
Pollan, Michael. The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World. New York, NY: Random House, 2001. Standage, Tom. A History of the World in 6 Glasses. New York, NY: Walker & Co., 2006. STEGGLES
Harrison, Robert. Sustainable Ceramics. Westerville, OH: American Ceramic Society, June 2013. WILLOUGHBY
Risatti, Howard. A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
De Waal, Edmund. The Hare with the Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritence. New York, NY: Farr, Straus and Giroux, 2010.
Zeisel, Eva. Eva Zeisel on Design: The Magic Language of Things. 2004. n.p.: Overlook Press, November 2011.
Logan, William Bryant. Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth. 1995. Reprint. New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 2007.
LUEBKE
Mathieu, Paul. The Art of the Future: 14 Essays on Ceramics. January 2016. /www.paulmathieu. ca/theartofthefuture/The%20Art%20of%20 the%20Future.pdf.
Harrod, Tanya. The Last Sane Man Michael Cardew: Modern Pots, Colonialism and Counterculture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.
COMING UP
Pollan, Michael. Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. New York, NY: Penguin Books, April 2014.
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