2003.4 - SWINGING CARP

I was inspired to make this piece by a piece of metal sculpture that I saw in an art gallery. I liked the idea of making a piece to swing back and forth. The center of gravity in this piece is too high up for the fish to actually balance, and I left a hole in the end behind the tail fin so that I can fill the piece with lead shot. I haven’t tried it yet. Another of my unfinished concepts waiting for me.

I made the next two pieces as a part of the last final exam Bruce gave. He made one last attempt to come up with an exam that I couldn’t, or wouldn’t mess up. The assignment was to make an animal with at least one piece of it thrown on the wheel. He was sure that I wouldn’t be able to mess this up because this is what I do with just about all of my pieces. I actually came up with three solutions to this problem.

Whenever Bruce started teaching a new class, one of the things he spoke of was eating in the studio. Real potters spend their lives in the studio with clay and glazes, and it is important to be able to eat safely among these dusty and sometimes toxic materials. We were encouraged to bring in food to share, and taught how to keep it safely. As an example of what was possible, Bruce always talked about making a chicken or a turkey in the kiln.

My first solution was to take Bruce at his word, and to make a chicken in the kiln. Unfortunately, both Norma Lyon, the other pottery instructor, and Tony Kitagawa, the studio technician, wanted no part of this exercise. Everyone was distraught over Bruce’s illness, and for possibly the only time in my life, I didn’t push it. Instead, I made a beggar’s chicken. In this recipe, one marinates the chicken and roasts it, naked, in the oven at 450°F for 20 minutes to brown it. Then it is wrapped in parchment paper, and put into a paper lunch bag. The whole thing is wrapped in a 25-pound half-inch slab of clay formed to look like a chicken. I baked it in my own oven at 350°F for 2 1/2 hours. When we peeled off the clay, the chicken was wonderful.

My second and third solutions were the Platterpuss, and the Sea Robin.