Fire in the Head Pt. 2 or My Love Letter to Ireland

April 5, 2016

Spring is here and my thoughts drift to summer plans. Images of last summer float in and out of memory and what I had hoped would be several blogs about my visit transformed into what can only be described as a love letter to Ireland. Immersing myself in Irish culture for a period of two weeks was not enough time for everything, but sufficient for falling in love with a beautiful country and its lovely inhabitants. When I visit a country I love to learn of the socio-economic, political, psychological, spiritual and historical milieu of the region. To quote one of my favorite performance artists, Rebecca Belmore, "I like to tap into that which makes us human." With that in mind I begin.....

Dear Ireland,

Thank you Dublin for being so easy to navigate unlike New York City, London, Rome or Paris which I love, but getting around is more difficult! Thank you for sharing your incredible history, Dublin Castle in particular was enlightening! Few Dubliners have visited as I later found out by talking to the locals..."How was it? I've never been," I was often told. It was profound to stand in so many spaces where so many acts of heroism occurred, such as the spot where Lord Lieutenant FitzAlan handed the keys of Dublin Castle to Michael Collins and famously chided him for being seven minutes late, to which Collins replied, "We have waited for seven hundred years, you can wait for seven minutes." To walk down what is now O'Connell street and the sites of the Easter Rising where men like James Connolly and the schoolteacher Patrick Pearse laid down their lives to pave the way for Ireland free of English rule was awe-inspiring. Their portraits, along with other members of the rebellion which hang in the James Connolly room in Dublin Castle sent chills up my spine. I did not know there were two rivers in Dublin. I had heard of the Liffey River but did not know the Poddle River runs underneath the city of Dublin and can be seen in Dublin Castle's underground. Thank you Dublin for your hospitality and charm which your people, food, music and tour guides exuded. Thank you for sharing your poets, writers, and lovely parks filled with wonderful art. All your buskers were truly exceptional and the music everywhere delightful!

Chapel in Dublin Castle where Michael Collins received the keys from Lord Lt. FitzAlan.

Marble sculpture in Merrion Square by artist Danny Osborne(1997).

Sfera, Trinity College, Dublin — Sfera, Trinity College, Dublin

Mural depicting the acts of Irish Hero Cúchulainn in the Táin saga outside Kilkenny Design Centre in Dublin.

Thank you to Newgrange, Giant's Causeway and the city of Belfast. I wish you well Belfast and all the peacemakers on both sides who strive for lasting peace. I am indebted to the black cab drivers who drove us to the Peace Walls. I shall never forgot the wall and am so grateful to have been able to sign it. I signed it with the word Hózhó from the Navajo people of the southwest where I reside. It's a concept really, more than a word. It means to live in harmony, to walk in beauty, something I think we all struggle with. We definitely do not have it all together in the USA but you knew that.

Thank you to Cork City especially our guide Fionna who explained the political history of Ireland through the National Monument in Cork City dedicated to the martyrs and leaders of the various uprisings. In the center of the monument is the sculpture of a woman, Kathleen, who represents the country of Ireland, the mother who takes care of her own. Fionna told us that the Irish songs about Kathleen were not about an individual woman but about the longing for Ireland! We also witnessed a political rally promoting the boycott of a water tax, very exciting!

The purpose of this visit was to meet and study with your clay artists and I am so grateful for their sharing of their time, talents, studios and families. So thank you to Adrian Wistreich of Kinsale Pottery School for organising this event. Thank you to Sara Roberts, Robert Lee, Darren Cassidy, Kathleen Standen, Jim Turner, Julian Smith and Cormac Boydel, They were all lovely and amazing! Thank you to all the cultural institutions, fine art galleries and design schools who opened your doors for us sometimes after hours! Thanks to Kathleen Standen for orchestrating an impromptu visit to Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen for a sneak preview of the exhibition Nearshore featuring work by Kathleen, Cormac Boydel, Karen Hendy and John Kingerlee. Thank you to Nick of Nicholas Mosse Pottery for his hospitality and unbridled enthusiasm for clay and his business. I have to mention that on our way to Ireland we visited our old haunt, the Chicago Art Institute, (lived there in the early eighties) and to our surprise we saw this lovely exhibition, Ireland Crossroads of Art and Design 1690-1840.

Robert Lee demo in what can only be described as the most pristine, wonderfully organised studio I have ever seen. His Mom even made apple pie for dessert for us, after lunch of course.

Darren Cassidy explains his techniques. This man is a genius with utilizing the most mundane household objects for surface treatment of clay....but we are bound to a code of secrecy on this count.

Kathleen Standen lecture, her book by the way, "Additions to Clay Bodies," is wonderful!

Jim Turner, Mr. Ceramics of Ireland! What a delightful presentation!

The multi-talented Julian Smith playing the flute: Raku artist by day, musician by night...

Nick giving us the grand tour of his operation, Nicholas Mosse Pottery.

Kathleen Standen at Uillinn West Cork Art Center, taking us on a walk through of this provocative exhibition.

As with all love letters there are inevitably things we forget to say. A special thanks to the town of Kinsale where we spent most of our time. Considered the gourmet capital of Ireland, you lived up to that reputation! The music heard in your pubs was exceptional! We loved the many hiking trails so near our hotel, the harbour, and the lovely town itself; you were warm, kind, and helpful. All your towns and its inhabitants were actually quite wonderful. I often think of your hills and mountains dotted with sheep and cows in green fields, streams, rivers and breathtaking ocean views. Yes, I am a Game of Thrones fan and did not realize they filmed at Giants Causeway, so was happy to see that!

Finally "that which makes us human," I found everywhere. We are all interested in freedom, job security, healthcare, education, to believe or not to believe, and search for beauty in everyday living. Art was the purpose of the trip as I mentioned before. Artists and the creative act of making connects us to the everyday, the sacred, and the mundane. Artists are the soul keepers of any society. A painting or mural or sculpture imbued with a political commentary, mnemonic content, or a simple bowl lovingly crafted that is a container for all things comforting, artist and artisans provide this, feeding our psyches with truth and beauty. I think you are well represented, Ireland by your artists and artisans. I wish you well and hope to see you again. Walk in beauty! I know you will.

With much love,

Kathleen

PS. I've included some links you may enjoy perusing: 1. New York Times video: 36 hours in Dublin, 2. Tony Bourdain's Layover in Dublin from the travel Channel, 3. New York Times 36 hours in Belfast.

PS.S I did visit Blarney Castle! Thanks to all your fabulous castles which stir the imagination!

Yoga studio in Kinsale. This is how I avoid injuries common to clay artists, like back pain and carpal tunnel syndrome- YOGA!

Seascape, below Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge near Giant's Causeway.

That's right, James Joyce in the window of F.W. Sweny & Co. Ltd. Dublin, Ireland

Blackboard in "The Black Pig," a tapas bar in Kinsale. Well said.

Fifty Shades of Terra Sigillata.....or Three

April 14, 2015

In my early years of playing with clay, terra sigillata was my go to choice for surface decoration. Terra sigillata, "earth seal" is associated with Greco-Roman pottery surface finishes. It's earthy, silky, wax-like finish dazzled me. It is especially wonderful for but not limited to raku firings. I was taught in art school that a ball mill was essential to a good terra sigillata mixture. Now as a small studio potter, I was not about to invest in a ball mill (a thousand dollars more or less) so I used the old fashioned method of water, clay, sodium silicate shaken together in a glass or plastic bottle, left to decant for 24 hours while the heavy clay settled to the bottom, the sigillata inhabits the middle space and the water rises to the surface.

I was joyfully surprised during my visit to La Meridiana with the Potters Council to find out that this is the traditional way of making terra sigillata in Italy. I asked founder and director of La Meridiana Pietro Maddelena about this and he said the recipe used with a ball mill is a slip and would not be considered (at least in Italy) terra sigillata. Great news!

For anyone interested in exploring this technique I would suggest a video made by our fearless leader (during our time at LM), Marcia Selsor, titled "Raku Firing, Expanding the Potential of the Raku Kiln." This link will take you to a quick youtube demo of the process.....uber simple, so I'll skip the recipe and explanation here! I own this video and I highly recommend this dvd for the libraries of ceramic artists and educators wishing to expand their knowledge or that of their students. If you are a ceramic artists living in New Mexico and are convinced that ball milled sigillata is the way to go, Coyote Clay and Craft School or New Mexico Clay will happily mix up a batch for you.

Back to fifty shades: The terra sigillata palette is not limited to white or red. A variety of colors can be had with the simple addition of mason stains or other oxides. A half of teaspoon to one teaspoon added to the mixture should suffice. I love to use a peacock green mason stain that yields a turquoise blue color, (sometimes a black mason stain), and crocus martis iron oxide for a deep red. These colors remind me of the New Mexico sky and New Mexico red earth. I do not work exclusively with terra sigillata, however, every once in a while the desire comes over me to create a sculptural vessel inspired by Greek vases and amphoras. I never know what I am going to do with it. I have included a photo of one of my first attempts of an amphora using terra sigillata and a more recent vessel. For more information on terra sigillata, google it! You will find more information and recipes than the time you will have to try everything. As always, happy creating!

One of my first terra sigillata projects, twenty years ago, ""See" of Life," amphora

O'Keeffe and New Mexico, blah blah blah, maybe...

December 12, 2014

So recently I had the opportunity to visit Georgia O'Keeffe's home in Abiquiu, New Mexico. It has been a long time in coming! You see for a Native New Mexican there can be deep resentment over her presence here due to the fact that New Mexico did not seem to exist on the map until her arrival and subsequent kinship with the state. And if I had a dime for every person who told me they moved to New Mexico or visited Abiquiui and O'Keeffe's home because, "I want to paint like O'Keeffe," let's just say that I would have a lot of dimes!

It was while taking an American Art History class in undergrad that I unexpectedly came to appreciate O'Keeffe. The fact that she dabbled in clay and loved it was a plus! Many of these vessels are in fact scattered throughout her home. Although I must suggest that the potential pilgrim should take the "Behind the Scenes" tour ($60.00) on Friday evenings if at all possible. This tour provides access to O'Keeffe's workroom storage, the famous room behind the black door, and O'Keeffe's fallout shelter and will allow you to see her private quarters and her bedroom, which are roped off for the standard ($30.00) tour .

Art History classes are about papers; researching a particular period presumably acquaints one with the socio-economic, spiritual, and political milieu of the era that produced the artist and subsequent art. I was actually interested in one of O'Keeffe's mentors, Arthur Wesley Dow and his book "Composition" as a research project. I also wanted to write about a work I could see in the flesh and not in a book. As fate would have it the University of New Mexico had a watercolor painting of O'Keeffe's, Tent Door at Night. I thought it would be a good exercise to write about the work of an artist I wasn't overly fond of. Shockingly enough I found that O'Keeffe's painting was oddly similar to a woodblock in Dow's book, pg.94 in case you are interested. I later learned from my professor at the time that I was not the first to make this discovery (darn!).

It was what I later learned through my research about O'Keeffe's philosophy that made me appreciate her and her work. She once said that "Sometimes I wish I lived in a tent and every morning I would open the flaps and let the wind blow through and clean everything out." (Paraphrased!) I found this refeshingly simple and at one time or another when life gets particularly hectic this statement becomes incredibly relevant to me and lovers of nature. If your ever in New Mexico, Santa Fe or Abiquiu visit the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and arrange a tour of her home. Tours can also be scheduled online. You won't be disappointed! Matthew Scott Drake was our tour guide and will be presumably during the 2015 season. Matthew was very knowledgable and overall fabulous.

No photos are allowed of O'Keeffe's home, inside or out so I've included photos from our hike through Plaza Blanca, The White Place that O'Keeffe loved to paint and hike and one of Abiquiu Lake. The area itself which we have visited numerous times is gorgeous, fun to hike and yes it is conducive to creativity, so bring your camera, watercolors, pastels if you so desire or simply enjoy and bask in the sunshine!

For more information on O'Keeffe and her work check out Artsy. The Artsy will give you links to more articles and listings on O'Keeffe exhibitions and images of her work that I cannot supply in this blog. Enjoy!