Several ongoing projects will be finished in the next month and then two new ones. Cris and I are finishing the revisions to the second edition of The Traditional and Religious Arts of Asia and, at the same time, I am updating two online introductory art courses for the School of Art. Those will be finished this month. If you have been reading this blog, you will also know that I am set to arrive at Hospitalfield in Arbrough, Scotland for March. For the past six or so years, the amount of ceramics that are fired has disturbed me. My beginning class of wheel throwers makes hundreds of cylinders, 15 cm high and 9 cm wide, to finally get the 40 they submit. The goal has been to get them to see these as being ‘not precious’ and to recycle the cylinders that are ‘unworthy’. It is difficult to imagine an archaeologist digging up our material culture in 1000 years and finding this ceramic work. My last group of students really embraced this, and I was so proud of them. In keeping with that and the theme of transience, the work that I will make and leave along the coast of the North Sea will not be fired. These are studies of the changing light during the day for the time I am at Hospitalfield. The works will disintegrate over time, a metaphor for the passage of time, birth and death. I will be using textile dyes, watercolours, and stains. This is very exciting. And in the spring a new studio will appear on our property in Winnipeg, a transition from my reduction of duties at the School of Art, to once again just being a studio ceramist. So looking forward.
