(c) A philosophy which is embodied in the material you use,
Let me quote what the Japanese potter, Hamada says about
his clay:

"Mashiko clay is by no means the best available, and it has
been suggested that I should bring in a better clay from
another source, However, I prefer to use the local clay,
which after all, is an integral part of the vil age and its
people. It is only because the clay is not first rate that I, a
stranger to Mashiko, could master it in twenty years. If the
clay was of better grade, it probably would have taken me
much longer to learn to control it, Rather than produce poor
work with good clay, I would far rather use a poorer clay and
with it make the finest pot Iam capable of making."

We will try to have continuing brief articles on
"fundamentals" in forthcoming issues.

G. Lewis

VANCOUVER REPORT

Michac]l Henry Exhibition - Bau-Xi Gallery, Nov. 1965
Michael Henry is a graduate of the Vancouver School of Art. His work
then was concerned with printing and drawing. When he went to England
several years ago he had no intention of taking up ceramics. He
travelled to St. Ives in Cornwall and subsequently, after having met
Janet and Bernard Leach, began working at their Pottery. He hasn't
stopped sincc. His pottery has great simplicity, strength and
honesty of execution. If a bowl is to be made, his only real concern
is that it be synonymous with the use for which it is intended, His
expression is in the success of the “bowl-ness" of the bowl. He is in
fact "being a bowl"'! This approach is also involved with the ritual
use of objects. In the use of things we have lost much of their ritual
significance through industrial products. A cup of Michael Henry's
reminds us again that there is much significance in the act of

drinking.