Ceramics - Ways of Creation

[ASIN:0873416104 Ceramics - Ways of Creation]]This book is one of those you will wish to spend some time perusing reading and pondering. Use it to stimulate your mind and creative flow.

CERAMICS, WAYS OF CREATION is a highly informative look at 36 contemporary artists who are "pouring" ceramics, working with the wheel, and molding various kinds of clay. I don't know if these artists are the best in the world, or who could possible determine that, but all the artists depicted are working in America, and most seem to have acquired a M.F.A. and some recognition among peers and critics. Probably the most valuable aspect of CERAMICS is the light it sheds on the contempory ceramics work scene. The artists seem to be fairly representative of their art/craft. Porcelain and raku, organic and inorganic, poured, molded, pressed and pinched, utilitarian and nonutilitarian, spritual and irreverent, functional and disfunctional are represented. For example, Ray Strassberg's Holocaust vision and David MacDonald's African pots and calabashes are opposite ends of the life-death spectrum. Wayne Higby's beautiful and evocative "Lake Powell Memory-Rain" is somewhere in-between. Virginia Scotchie's "Vera's Garden" of stylized ceramic plants as big as the artist regenerate her memory of life as a child on her grandparents farm. The metaphysical "Primal Courage" of Joanne Hayakawa shows a stiff backbone (skeleton and pelvis) and Peter Pinnell brings the reader back to teatime with his wonderful teapots. Each section contains a short biography of the artist and discusses themes, types of clay, modeling techniques, firing temperatures, tempura, and other aspects of the creative process. The book also contains an appendix of terms. Probably not technical enough for the ceramics artist, but a wonderful book for those who are thinking of taking up the craft and want to appear semi-literate at the local art center.