ADAM EVE AND TWO MARYS

ADAM AND EVE TILE by Mary Wondrausch

This is definitely my week for referring to some inspiring role models..Both coincidently named Mary. 

"All the arts we practise are apprenticeship. The big art is our life"  - Mary Caroline Richards, American poet, potter and most inspiring educator (1916 - 1999)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary Wondrausch

I recently had the privilege of visiting Mary Wondrausch at her home in Compton, near Guildford, Surrey,UK. At 80 something she is still very much a practising potter, eccentric and full of zest for the delights of excellent food served in charming dishes. Andre Hess, British ceramist, and I lunched with her in her conservatory on a rare sunny winter's day, a highlight of my trip to Britain and a most memorable experience.

A view of Mary W's kitchen on a sunny winter's morning

Mary W. has been called the 'queen of slipware'

See her sitting regally with other slipware potters

http://slipware.blogspot.com/2008/08/slipware-potters.html

THE INNER LIFE

MORNING MEDITATION BOWL

Some words of wisdom from poet and potter M.C.Richards...

"The artistic experience is central to the human being, because it is an affirmation of his inner life: an externalising of the inner man in ways that are not basically rational though they are coherent and organic. An affirmation of the nonverbal sources of our awareness and our feelings..."

It seems to me, very often, in the 21st Century that we, the makers, have lost the plot. There is an extraordinary emphasis on the external trimmings, the marketing, of the artefact. All at the expense of the inner meaning and content. And perhaps this is why so many craft projects fail, are not sustainable, because the development of passion and the search for meaning in creating is totally disregarded in favour of the outer fanfare. For me, the ongoing challenge is finding the middle road, a balance of outer form and inner life.