THE EMPTINESS HOLDS WHATEVER WE WANT

Inspired by the textured surfaces of some of the work of Kim Sacks (see my blog post on our group show) Kazuhiro Katase, Takayama Dai I have been experimenting with textures on the outside of glazed bowls so that they will still be utilitarian, and then, inspired by Lao Tzu (570-490 BC), this poem...

“We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.”

MEANWHILE BACK AT THE STUDIO...

One of the highlights last week while I was in Johannesburg at our show at Kim Sacks Gallery, was that the actor Orlando Bloom came into our shop at The Old Biscuit Mill , and, surrounded by many fans who rushed in to photograph him, managed to purchase a large number of my ceramic pieces!
Then one big order ready to go off today - images of some of the work above - will be on its way to Singita Lodges. And earlier in the week a consignment of zig zag vases went off to Nando's in Washington U.S.A.
So it's all been happening...may it continue!

TRAVERSING

 Clementina at Kim Sacks Gallery - Vessels and Plates

  Clementina at Kim Sacks Gallery - Plates and bowls

  Clementina at Kim Sacks Gallery - Jugs and zig zag vases

 Kim at Kim Sacks Gallery - Pinch pots

  Kim at Kim Sacks Gallery - Pinch pots

  Clementina at Kim Sacks Gallery - Cartoon beakers

  Clementina at Kim Sacks Gallery - Tulipiere

  Clementina at Kim Sacks Gallery - Vessels and pedestal dish

  Clementina at Kim Sacks Gallery - Dancing vases

Priscilla Mouritzen at Kim Sacks Gallery - Pinch pots

 Priscilla Mouritzen at Kim Sacks Gallery - Pinch pots

  Kim at Kim Sacks Gallery - Pinch pots

 Kim at Kim Sacks Gallery - Pinch pots

These are some images from the current exhibition at Kim Sacks Gallery in Johannesburg.

The exhibition is called 'Traversing' and features the work of Clementina van der Walt, Kim Sacks and Priscilla Mouritzen. 

At the opening this past Saturday we had a talk/walkabout. I spoke about the meaning of making ceramics and how this relates to one's world view. I also read a beautiful poem by Rainer Maria Rilke which I found poignant and appropriate...

A Walk

My eyes already touch the sunny hill.
going far ahead of the road I have begun.
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has inner light, even from a distance-

and charges us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it,
we already are; a gesture waves us on
answering our own wave...
but what we feel is the wind in our faces.

Kim Sacks Gallery requests the pleasure of your company at the opening of TRAVERSING An exhibition of ceramics by three women who have a creative connection to Denmark. EXHIBITING ARTISTS Clementina van der Walt – Priscilla Mouritzen - Kim Sacks OPENING: Saturday 15th September 2012 - 10am to 5pm PREVIEW: Friday 14th September 2012 - 10am to 5pm The exhibition will close Monday 8th October 2012. Clementina, Priscilla and Kim will conduct a walk-about and a discussion at 2.30pm on the day of the opening. Refreshments will be served. TEL: 011 447 5804 MOBILE: 083 377 9076 WEBSITE: www.kimsacks.com EMAIL: kim@kimsacksgallery.com ADDRESS: 153 Jan Smuts Avenue - Parkwood - Johannesburg GALLERY HOURS: Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm - Saturday 10am to 5 pm - Sunday 10am to 2pm And any other time by appointment – and with great pleasure! Secure parking on the Property

CELEBRATING SPRING

Today

By Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

ZIG ZAGS OF FIRE

A batch of my 'zig zag' vases which are for a client in the US.

LONGING FOR SPRING!(IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE)

Spring is like a perhaps hand by E. E. Cummings

III

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.