Going to China: Preparation

We expected change and unexpected circumstances when Rob retired from his teaching career at The Dalton School last fall. He returned to a schedule of his own making, and returned to making art, along with painting the house, getting the furnace fixed, and making sauerkraut. His exploration of ideas took hold, generating a series of large drawings and experiments with printmaking. Then we were approached by an unexpected circumstance beyond all imagining. Rob has been invited to teach at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China for the entire month of April. This April. 

Clarifying what this might mean has taken several months. But last week when Rob sent off his carefully crafted curriculum and request for materials, some solidity began for him. Of course he will not know anything for certain until he meets his students and his interpreter. Then much more will become clear. 3-D abstract modeling in the School of Public Art, for third year students, 5 afternoons a week will definitely define itself!

We applied for visas at the Chinese consulate, at the end of West 42nd Street where it meets the Hudson River. Miraculously a security guard from Brooklyn shepherded us through our nervousness, and guided us through the finicky process. Yesterday we picked up our visas and celebrated by buying more gifts for people we have yet to meet. 

My sore arm from the tetanus booster, beeping reminders on my calendar for us to take our every-other-day typhoid pills, the two new Osprey carry-on bags being held for us at REI, all speak to our new reality. Pillow talk as we went to bed last night: "A week from now we will still be in the air, in fact for 3 more hours ..." We arrive in Shanghai next Friday afternoon. Since we do not know if we can blog in this format from Hangzhou, we will also set up a new blog: http://journals.worldnomads.com/chinaho/ Find us here and there.

Exploring Raleigh with Friends

Detail of the yellow staircase at the James Hunt Library North Carolina State University

Our last full day was spent in Raleigh, staying at the home of Mike Cindric and Susan Toplikar.  Mike is an old friend from my Alfred days, when I was in undergraduate school and Mike was pursuing his masters in ceramics.  Mike always had an intensity to him, which is centered in his eyes.  He resembles the painter John Graham in the artist’s pencil self-portraits and from what I have read of Graham there was a similar sensitivity and ferocity.  Despite our nearly 40-year friendship, we have only seen one another a few times since Alfred.  Our communication has been sparse and usually consists of annual holiday cards sent to one another with a brief synopsis of the yearly events. 

NCSU Hunt Library BookBot

Mike parlayed his interest in ceramics into a study of architecture and he received his degree at the North Carolina State University where he met his wife Susan, a painter who taught design at NCSU.  The two are now retired and Mike is thinking and getting ready to set up a pot shop in a shared studio.  When we were making plans to travel to North Carolina, it gave us an excuse to reconnect, and meet Susan for the first time.  We had a great time.  Our stay began with meeting at Mark Hewitt’s home and returning to Raleigh with M & S. The next day we toured some of the architectural highlights in the Raleigh / Duke area.  Mike brought us to the newly constructed James Hunt Library as part of NCSU.  This mammoth facility is a technological wonder representing the future of libraries. Its fame has something to do with the use of what they refer to as a BookBot, an automated robot that retrieves requested books from banks of storage bins, all situated behind glass walls for viewing pleasure.  According to our guide the books are arranged by size and not in numerical order, in fact the materials are placed rather randomly and tracked by their bar codes. For those who miss the traditional shelf browsing there is a remedy for that on the computer, where you can “browse” on line, scrolling through images of book covers on any selected topic.  The building is a modernist sensation with vast spaces, bright colors and enough designer furniture to look like a Design within Reach warehouse.  It is a whose who of architect-designed furniture: Miesian Barcelona chairs, Eames lounges and task chairs and Arne Jacobsen's Egg Chair, in bright red.  I must admit I couldn’t wrap my head around such a voluminous library or trying to work in such a vast space.  My mind kept referring to H.H. Richardson’s intimate Crane Library in Quincy, Massachusetts and the quiet and scholarly atmosphere it creates.  What happened to Sullivan’s “Form Follows Function,” or is the function here really about fundraising and looking impressive? It was notable that mention was made that there is now eating and drinking allowed throughout the facility, and there are catering facilities built in for events. This is indeed a new concept in function as well.

North Carolina Museum addition by Phifer and Partners

The next stop was much more in tune with the landscape and functionality, the North Carolina Museum of Art, tactfully designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners.  It is a series of taut minimal forms with subtle tilts to the individual planes that clad the exterior.  Each was not quite aligned, but canted to reveal a sliver of mirrored reflection.  The interior is open, and clean with coffered elliptical skylights to bring in soft natural light throughout the structure. Baffles control the harshest rays of the sun.  The works of all periods and media look great, including an extensive Rodin Court.  Sculpture functions extremely well in the courtyards between individual wings of the building.  Water pools add serenity to the composition and it sure looks like a nice place to be once the trees leaf out.

Mike Cindric's Pavilion as part of the sculpture garden surrounding the North Carolina Museum

The adjacent park acts as an extension of the Museum and that is where Mike has installed a pavilion, inextricably architecture and sculpture and impromptu classroom for all manner of students.  The perforated metal and welded frames hover gently above the sloping grade. Ideally one approaches the pavilion from a wooded section where an entry ramp leads to this open air “room.”  Inspired by another regional architect, Samuel Mockbee, Mike combined economy, ingenuity and community to bring this project to life.  It is a masterwork of design that sits beckoning on the sloping knoll. 

Sarah had been hatching a cold and decided to rest at M & S’s after lunch.  The three of us took in one more building at Duke University in nearby Durham, their Nasher Museum, recently completed by Rafael Vinoly.  The building is composed of five separate rectangular boxes deviod of fenestration, but each with an open doorway leading onto shared atrium space.  This steel and glass atrium is constructed of two interlocking structural systems extending from the 5 galleries.  While the building exhibits Brutalist muscularity, it functions extremely well as a museum in the tradition of Louis Kahn served and service.  Each gallery volume varies in size and accommodates one coherent  show or collection. The atrium provides the linkage and communal space.   Here one does think of Sullivan’s dictum of form following function – and it succeeds. 

There was a terrific exhibition of photographs from various collections from around the state.  It had all the usually heavy hitters, as well as some new names and images.  I was particularly interested in the work of the German photographer, Andreas Gefeller, who creates a digital composite of multiple images seen from above his subjects. This large photographs, 5'x6' are manipulated and highly controlled to show exactly what the artist wants us to see, but also minute detail.  This marvelous image of tree shadows in a Dusseldorf car park was captivating. 

After dropping Susan off to attend to their new dog, Pepper, we took a quick car tour by the light of the rising full moon to see various local buildings lit from within or externally – admiring the glowing marbles used as a matrix in once façade and the shimmering and illuminated wall of another.  Mike took us to see their shared studio and intended future home of his pot shop, currently used by Susan as her painting studio, the site where, in fact, she created 5 large horse paintings over a period of a decade.  One last stop took us to the offices of Design Dimensions Inc. where Mike worked for so many years.  He showed us Susan’s current project a set of colorfully stained chairs with a matching table, which was waiting for a final coats of finish.  This table and chair project was quite beautiful, each part stained in much the way Susan elaborates and details the boundaries of her paintings.  It will be a marvelous presence in their house, which has an empty dining room waiting for it. 

Rob, Susan, and Mike

Throughout our dinner, last evening, and morning together, there were conversations about  our shared interests and the events that has happened in the time between our visits.  The whole while we drank coffee and tea from mugs made by many of our favorite potters.  With hopes for good health and a promise to keep in touch, we concluded this warm and welcome stay.  The best weather of the whole trip seemed to be unfolding on the morning we left!  It was lovely to traverse North Carolina on our way North, thought it was a long car day to end our vacation and arrive back in Brooklyn, with a car load full of pots and our heads full of thoughts.  

Pots, Potters, and Dipping into a Vital Local Tradition in Seagrove, NC

Historic Jugtown Pottery

Seagrove is the heart of the North Carolina pottery industry. It has a long tradition of locals pulling thick lumpy goo out of the ground and miraculously turning this earth into functional everyday pottery. Jugs, bowls, plates, mugs, crocks, pitchers, all made from local clay and for the most part these wares were fired in wood kilns and glazed with salt, giving a trademark texture, sheen, and color.  Throwing is a mercurial process, which forms the object and firing provides the element of chance that can transform this object into near art or disaster.

These local pot forms reflect their utility and function - practical, humble, and as iconic to Americans as any amphora to the ancient Greeks.  This cottage industry survived here in one way or another for generations, being passed down through families with names that match the local roads, like Busbee, Owen, Moore, and Chrisco.  Production survived on a small rural scale until the post World War II world of mass production and cheap available commercial ceramic ware.  In the 1960s Nancy Sweezy saved and revitalized Jugtown Pottery, one of the renowned local producers connected to the Busbee and Owens families.  Nancy introducing new and non lead glazes and modernized their production.   This resurrection to the nearly done Jugtown seems to have established a solid foundation on which today’s industry stands. 

Larry Moore's Robin's egg blue birdhouses

By industry I speak of some 150 potters all within a 10-mile radius of Seagrove who hang out a “Pottery” shingle.  The variety of pots is mind numbing and stretches the gambit from well-established Art Potters, like Ben Owen III to a fellow we met named Larry Moore who’s brother Charlie, now deceased, used to work at Jugtown for decades and so when Larry lost his life-long job at the chicken factory in 2000 when it closed, he transformed his ancestral home into a potshop. He throws in what was once the kitchen, and the front two rooms function as his showrooms. He throws a tidy pot, something he has been doing his whole life, but only as an occupation for the last dozen years. He also makes clay roosters and dragons and applies glaze with a sense of abandon that would impress any abstract expressionist.  Larry’s shop sits across the street from the entrance to Jugtown, and we just happened to stop in after visiting his well-established neighbor.  We bought a large pot with a vivid splash of color, a birdhouse that hangs like a blue eyeball in a tree ($20), and a vase ($18) all have become our personal treasures.

Wares in the Jugtown shop

At Jugtown we visited with Pam Owens and marveled at the compound of rough-hewn buildings that have been on site since 1901 according to the bronze plaque from the National Register of Historic Buildings.  Jugtown’s pots carry the tradition of ceramics that put Seagrove on the map in the first place.  Their traditional designs and forms don’t venture far from what were always their wares and the accompanying museum proves this point.  Some marvelous pots, well executed and functional.

We went down the road to the next generation of the Owen (without an “s”) clan to one of its brightest stars, Ben Owen III.  Like his father and grandfather who worked at Jugtown, he carries the tradition, but has literally transformed the process of making pots into an art form and a hugely successful commercial enterprise. His is a modern art pottery factory and showroom; well lit and filled with elegant forms, stylish glaze combinations (retaining a few traditional ones as well – cobalt blue and “Jugtown red”).  Ben’s pots are a big business for decorators and collectors around the world and his facility is well maintained and could easily be at home on Madison Avenue.  Not the place for the locals to pick up a pie plate.  This was a big contrast to “The Original Owens” shop we saw the day before, filled with many multiples of every useful form, some hand painted, all competent, but not marketed as art.

Ben Owen showroom

Ben Owen III 

Chrisco's vintage Ford pickup

We returned to the studio/shop of Mack Chrisco after peering in the windows the day before. He has been turning his large capable hands towards the making of functional pottery for decades. It was in his shop that we found a set of dishes that met the needs of a friend back in Brooklyn, and on the eve of his birthday, took 8 plates off his shelves. Notable as well was the 1968 Ford pick up out front, with a rusted patina over every inch. As Mack described it, he has replaced everything in it that can be replaced. It was a beauty.

Bulldog's spectacular glazes on two vases

Our final stop for the day was to the other phenomenon that is taking place among the Seagrove potteries – the newcomers.  These are transplants who have graduate degrees in ceramics from places like Alfred University’s SUNY School of Ceramic Art and Design.  Fred Johnston and Carol Gentithes have already been referenced in this blog, but we also ran into Bruce Gholson and Samantha Henneke who run Bulldog Pottery.  They are Alfred clay people and settled in Seagrove in 1997. The two collaborate on work, the one who throws the pot signs it, and they both share in the glazing process. They have specialized in layering their glazes, and they achieve some startling results with bright greens and ochre hues that remind us of early spring.  We spoke to Bruce for over an hour, purchasing a stunning bud vase and a decorative plate – perfect for serving.  We would have taken Bruce up on his invitation to see his modern corrugated steel home of two cubes, separated by a covered breezeway, but our time was running short and we had an appointment to visit with perhaps the most recognizable potter in the region, Mark Hewitt, along with reconnecting with Rob’s friend from Alfred, Mike Cindric, and meet his wife Susan. 

Mark Hewitt's pots outside his studio

We rushed from Bulldog Pottery to Pittsboro, an hour to the East where we had stayed the previous night at a wonderful B&B.  Running late, we arrived at 6:00pm and Mike and Susan had already arrived.  Mark’s facility sits at the end of a cul de sac just outside of town.  His compound is a series of buildings, house, kiln sheds, pottery showroom barn.  The home is friendly and filled with the most beautiful pots in scales form petite to gigantic.  Mark is a friendly handsome fellow with a British accent and his wife, Carol, has the same warmth, grace without the accent.  We got to know one another over beer and wine, and talked about art and pots and the business related to such things as the sun faded. Before it was totally dark, Mark took us on a tour.  The kiln is massive and nearly fully loaded with pots in anticipation of this week’s firing.  I ask if he knows how many pots are inside and he says 1500. These range from small coffee cups to the four foot architectural creations for which he is known.  These urn-like pots also dot his yard acting as sentinels against the rural landscape.  The potshop is next to the kilns with sparse rows of work sitting on long boards waiting for the last loading the next day.  The earth floor is lumpy and uneven and has hard knobs poking up form the clay like earth. It all seems to be made of clay. We finally see the sale barn, where there are rows of shelves and a few remaining pots after the Catawba Valley Sale and just before the next firing.  These shelves will undoubtedly be filled with new pots in a week’s time as Mark will have two huge sale event weekends in early April.

Mark's pot shop

Large pots with his new circle motif in the kiln
to be fired this weekend. 

We move back inside and share a lively evening of conversation among wonderful people and good food provided by Mike and Susan. The evening concludes with our leaving this remarkable area of North Carolina with the clay soil that has fashioned a pottery industry and a loose band of individuals. It is remarkable that they all use this elastic material to discover self expression, and make a living.  The evening plan is to follow Mike and Susan to their home in Raleigh about three quarters of an hour further East, in what is known as the Research Triangle, to spend our final days with them visiting, seeing art and architecture and rekindling a friendship that began at Alfred nearly four decades ago.

Before leaving the subject of Mark Hewitt, I feel compelled to include something about how he has almost single handedly revitalized the North Carolina pottery trade. This transplanted Brit from Stoke-on-Trent, England moved to this area in 1983, and as he told us over dinner, he ventured into the American landscape with the love of his life, Carol, and a plan to find an area with rich clay deposits that he could use to make pots.  With his degree in geography, they traveled around with large geological maps scanning the countryside before settling in Pittsboro and purchasing a plot a land where he could dig clay and process it into useable material.  He still does that today.  He also established an apprenticeship program, and over the years has had a series of young potters willing to dedicate two years to learn his craft his way. That is traditional of handing down knowledge that has served the region well, as many of his disciples seem to stay around, generating their own forms and building potteries.  This, more than anything else has reinforced the North Carolina ceramics movement. His international reputation and nurturing of young potters has a large part to play in transforming this area into a widely recognized craft mecca for those in search of pots. This continues to include pots of any kind, low brow or high art, making this the place to find them. And that is largely due to Mark’s vision and hard work.  He is an amazing fellow who also makes some damn nice pots. 

Not Closed on Monday Seagrove and Pittsboro

Snow flurries fell as we stripped the sheets and left our little Red Cottage in West Asheville. One errand before heading East -- to stop in at the coffee shop and see about a mug by Candice Hensley. To Rob's delight, the charming young potter was there selling coffee. They had a good chat, and he happily bought the mug. We found the land just East of Asheville to be beautiful, as the sun came out and lit up the peaks dusted in snow. Everything changed as we passed Hickory, flattening out. Even the church structures seemed to change, the barn roofs too.

Entering Seagrove, N.C.

Before arriving in Seagrove we had gone over websites, and poured over the maps, noting which potteries were open on Monday. Most are not. What we learned upon arriving at the very first pot shop was that a tremendous amount of work is visible in the collective stores. We "met" so many potters we had not seen on the map, nor at the Catawba Valley Pottery Fair, nor via internet searches.  It was a very efficient way of identifying a few more potters whose work interested us. Several sell through the stores, not through their own shops, so it was well worth the stop. And we saved ourselves some time going in and out and seeking potters whose work didn't thrill us.

One of our stops was to see the work of Fred Johnston and Carol Gentithes, who turned out to be SUNY Alfred art school people. It was good to see more of the work, which we did remember from Catawba, and to visit a bit with Fred and Carol, sharing stories and getting to know each other. Fred has an intriguing way of combining decoration with the pot form. His work references historical elements from past cultures and times, like pre-Columbian and Native American imagery. The decoration is really something, it can evoke Miro one minute or Acoma the next but is not at all kitsch  or imitative.

 By the time we left the Seagrove area we had a little gathering of pots wrapped in newspaper on the floor in the back seat of the car: a mug, a vase, a small dish had joined Ms. Hensley's mug. We had looked for bowls, apple baking pots, teapots, and plates. Ah well, there is always tomorrow.  

County Courthouse in Pittsboro N.C.

The road to Pittsboro was a short cut road that went directly from Seagrove to our B&B on West Street. A renovated and renewed, gracious farm house structure, the B&B was a lovely place to land. Large proportions to the rooms and all the necessities provided by a friendly host. We walked into town, ate dinner at Angelina's Kitchen where we both had a vegan "rice bowl" that hit the spot with lentils, collards and carrots mostly from local sources. The County Courthouse beckoned us onto Main Street, where we peeked into the windows of second hand shops and the local second hand book store too. Turns out there's a Woodworking School and a vintage hand-tool shop above the school to see tomorrow!

Lost and Found in the Mists of the Blue Ridge

The fog in Little Switzerland N.C.

This morning we awoke to the sound of pounding rain. It remained dark well after sun up with a heavy cloud cover in Asheville. This was nothing to compare with the mists that engulfed us as we tried to follow the google map directions to the Folk Art Center. It was one of those adventures with directions that had us climb all the way up the Town Mountain Road, along rail-less drop offs in a thick mist in order to wind our way backwards on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the exhibits and shop of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. There were beautiful examples from the collection of the local craft traditions in weaving, basketry, clay, wood and natural material toys and household objects. It was good to get off the road for a few minutes. We couldn't resist a Bob Meier cup, which quickly seems to have become a favorite for Sarah's ginger tea. 

Tom at his computer with two smaller forms
in the foreground

The next adventure in directions came in trying to follow the shorthand and sign post notes from Tom Spleth. He's the one who moved to a high peak near Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the Blue Ridge range! Well, it was curvy and steep. There were exciting moments, and deep fog.  We pulled over a few times, not for the road, but for the beautiful barns and tobacco shed structures arranged on the lumpy curving land masses.  Of course that was in the clearings. We arrived at Tom's because Tom came to retrieve us from near the post office parking lot of Little Switzerland. It would have been a quick trip if the Parkway was open, but it was closed due to bad weather and ice conditions. 

Tom's hexagonal bowl

Tom was a figure at Alfred when we were there, but one step removed from campus. He was in Alfred Station running a pottery, and already messing with the plaster slip casting that engrossed him for the next 30 years. He is still giving workshops and demonstrations on this technique. It was a marvelous moment when he opened the casual cabinets in his studio to reveal nine or so of these major works. These tall faceted slip castings, some black and white, and some with layers of color, date over the last few years. As it happens, his current fascination is with painting derived from the images of his pots. Painting is a pursuit that he says took hold of his imagination when he was 8 years old. It was during his time at the Kansas Art Institute under the magnetism of Ken Ferguson, that he turned towards ceramics.  We had a fun time seeing the work, hearing his stories, and connecting the dots. 

Tom's cabinet of tall pots

It was a lot easier to get from his place to the Penland School campus for a welcome cup of hot coffee.  The fog crept in, the chill was palpable. Hard to remember that we were so much farther South than our little Gilboa hillside.  The drive back to Asheville was relaxing, and we made dinner of all the food we had left -- with a large salad remaining to get us through tomorrow's lunch.  Our intention is to depart Asheville after picking up a mug we saw on Friday, made by a potter who also works in a coffee shop down by the River Arts district. Then we will drive the 2-3 hours East to Seagrove, the site of Jugtown and many many potteries. Eventually we will check in to our B&B in Pittsboro, a town that is sure to have a small pocket of crafts to share with us on Tuesday.

A Madison County Barn

Gobbling Up Pots

Chad Brown's booth, 5th generation North Carolinian potter

We entered the Hickory Convention Center with the idea that we would touch base with Mark Hewitt first, before the crowds descended. His work is well known beyond the region and we expected hordes of people to swarm. It was hard not to get involved with the pottery in the first booths close to the door, but we raised our eyes and kept walking until we found the Hewitt booth. He was personable, and the work beautiful.  As expected, we bought a pot. We’ll have more time to visit with him and see his studio in a couple days.

 

Our Mark Hewitt pot

Our Jim Whalen pot

Our adventure really began after leaving his booth. We literally spent over 4 hours looking, touching, talking, walking, and yes, buying.  The first two pieces we bought were art pots, defined by their elegance, grace, remarkable aesthetic qualities and sheer perfection of craft. The first was the Mark Hewitt piece, which could be envisioned with a couple lily stems, or filled with cider, or simply standing to be admired.  The second was a piece by Jim Whalen that simply took Sarah’s breath away with its references to Zuni shape and burnished surface. Jim is a seeker, following his own passions and artistic expressions through this most ancient and earthly practice. We hope to make it to his studio before leaving the Asheville area. His process is precise, with a daylong throwing in order to allow the clay to stiffen up and hold this uncanny shape. He slow-dries the piece, burnishing the surfaces and removing all marks of the hand, while preparing the surface for what will be the application of wax in patterns designed to thrill the eye and wake the heart. His final firing is a two-stage process of salt firing and sawdust firing, and still the pot is not done until it is scrubbed, soaked, and coated in tung oil. There is a month’s work in each pot.

Chad Brown's 1 gallon pitcher 

Then we began in earnest looking for functional ware for daily use, picking up mugs, bowls, and objects. We engaged in dialogues with some, and returned more than once to others. It is remarkable how a hand fits with a handle, or doesn’t, and how the attachment of a handle can change the balance in a mug.  The forms and glaze textures of Chad Brown caught us from the moment we walked by his booth, to which we returned, three times. There is a fundamental form in each of his pieces, and his glazes are unassuming, yet their unabashed salt glazed surfaces have that humble grace that saturates the old traditions. In speaking with him, we learned that he is a 5^th generation potter, no surprise there! He threw production ware for ten years before taking his forms out to meet his own need to make pots. He is the embodiment of how the influences of a Mark Hewitt meet the century old practices.

Andrea's booth

We were impressed by a young couple, caught by the colors and finesse, playful experimentation and expression of Andrea Denniston’s work, only to turn and see her partner’s work, astute and clear, functional and fun. We ended up with more of Seth Guzovsky’s pieces than Andrea’s and by the time we got home, wished we had brought several more of Andrea’s with us. We may have to do something about that. She has plans to do graduate work at Syracuse, so perhaps we’ll find her in New York.

With bags of mugs and soy sauce dishes, we continued to enjoy one after another of potters making contemporary face jugs, baked apple dishes, lamp bases, oil and vinegar cruets, and large planters. We admired faceted and crackled surfaces, enjoyed discussing the alligator dry crackled skins of Gene Arnold’s pieces, though we walked away with only two lovely balanced mugs from his Mud Duckpottery. We were choosing mugs for others, friends and our children, and hope that among the many they will find the one.

Three mugs - left & right by Seth Guzovsky,
center mug by Chad Brown

   

Our bowl by Andrea Denniston

In the next two days we expect to see many more possibilities, including a new red alert for oatmeal bowls.