Vancouver, B.C. VéH 3R7
(604) 683-9623

Potters Guild of British Columbia

1359 Cartwright St,, Granville Island

NEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBER 1988

MEDICINE HAT CERAMIC SYMPOSIUM

On May 13-15 I spent a very enjoyable weekend in
Medicine Hat, Alberta at the Second Bi-Anntal Medi-
cine Hat Ceramics Symposium. The Symposium was
held at Medicine Hat College and was sponsored by
the College and organized by the Hat Potters Club.
The Alberta Potters Association held its Annual Gen-
eral Meeting at the Symposium.

The weekend was well organized by Arne Handley and
the Hat Potters Club. This meant that “things” worked
so one could spend time on the workshops and
soctalizing with others, exchanging ideas, techniques
and making new friends.

The first speaker of the symposium was Gerry Wil-
liams, editor of Stuclio Potter. His talk was entitled “An
Art in Search of Spirit,” and he described his view of
the trends in pottery in the U.S. and the lack of
spirituality in much of the work being produced. He
described why this spirituality is missing and what
can be done to develop spirit in clayworks in the
future. He gave some good pointers in this regard:

1, Practice tmagination and trust your intuition

2. Meditate

3. Develop a “good eye” (there was a description
about this and I think he basically meant
develop good skills and be aware of design)

4, Search for your roots (pottery roots, that is)

5. Practice ethics (be aware of social, political,
environmental, economic issues that surround
you)

6. Don't take yourself too seriously — take the
long view of your problems.

Although I did not agree with some of his statements
nor always understand his meaning, he set the week-
end off to an energetic start.

There were three time slots of 1 1/2 hours for the
workshops, and there were two workshops happening
at cach time slot, The three that 1 choose reflected my
interest in utilitarian pottery and an interest in the
women's movernent, Noburo Kubo, many of you know
fromthe Malaspina Workshops. He demonstrated his
brushwork and also his throwing, Norburo showed us
how to throw large bowls when you are a small person.

Sam Ullick of Edmonton makes his living working full
time as a potter. He demonstrated his t
techniques, some of his equipment from his studio —
like a wire cutter that cuts the clay into exactly the
right amount fora mug etc., and gavt agreat commen-
tary as he showed his slides of his studio, pots that he
and his wife Antonia have made, pots that have
influenced his work and the suppliers yard where he
gets his glaze materials. Sam's straightforward ap-
proach to making quality domestic vessels was inspir-
ing as well as refreshing.

Liz Menzies is a clayworker who uses the medium to
express her political and social concerns. She de-
scribed her work using slides and a narration telling
of her involvement in the women's movement and her
work in clay. The work as it stood was not always
obvious in its content and meaning. However her
workshop was very interesting and brought home for
me, once again, the difficulty in tying together social
concerns and political life with forms and images that
really drive home a particular paint.

The workshops that I missed were those of Chuck
Wissinger who teaches at Red DeerCollege. He works
with large masses of clay and the information that |
have on him says he was showing “new aspects of his
geological and historical sculptures.” Sally Michener,
a B.C, clayworker, gave a slide presentation of her
‘groups’ of modernistic ceramic sculptures, Kirsten
Abrahamson showed slides of her sculptural work.
Late in the symposium, Kirsten with a very coura-
geous volunteer showed how to make a plaster face
mask; the poor man under the plaster was sitting on
a stage in a plastic garbage bag, while little strips of
plaster were applied to his entire face, including his
tather long moustache. He didn't even crack the mask
when the jokes started.

Doris Shadbolt, well known writer and former curator
of the Vancouver Art Gallery, was the speaker on
Sunday morning. She centred her address around the
acceptability of clay as a medium in the “art world”.

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