COLUMBIA

A New Approach, Conti from Page 5

around a hollow space and, instead, by sculpting a solid mass of clay
it was possible to have a flowing shape. The base, a future context,
was incorporated into the structure. After I established the form, it
was only a matter of hollowing it out thoroughly. It ended up feeling
like a giant press-moulded figure, light and durable. I replicated, as
best I could, the lovely orange on the Staffordshire figurine, and its
sumptuous purple-blue base.

At first glance, the Staffordshire figurine is just a little
ornament, but it is much more. The figurine is imbued with
a desire for the ‘life-style of the rich and famous.’ The dog is a
greyhound, a treasured hunting companion reserved for the no-
bility, or kept illicitly
by gypsies for hunt-
ing rabbits and bet-
ting...a nod to the
racetrack hounds of
today. The Stafford-
shire dog is sitting
on a bed of purple;
the colour reserved
for the rich, not the
bed of a working
collie. Along the base
is an extravagant lit-
tle band of gold, a
material more com-
monly applied to the
best porcelain table-
this
Staffordshire figurine,

ware. I love

and the generous scale
Big Dog Head Jar, by Debra Sloan. of my facsimile re-
flects just how much.
By giving the dog a knowing creatural pose, and stylising the form
and the markings, I wanted to place the dog firmly in the imaginative
realm, a place where the viewer can enter.

This new process has freed up making and shaping considerably.
With attention to the engineering and extreme angles, it suits this
exploration of narrative forms. In Dog With Baby, 2008, the scale is
intimate. Much of the pleasure in making this was in interlocking the
two forms. Though they are visually separated by colour and textures,
the animal and human elements, clasped in their equivocal embrace,
are one continuous mobile surface. ] have drawn on the miniature
realm of the netsuke to pull the viewer closely into this little drama.
It is an interactive object, not just because of the hand-held scale, but
also the two outward gazes, and begs the question whether size matters.
‘This tiny piece, without a base, returns to the notion of interactive
fluid space, where, as Philip Rawson says,"...space-modality offers
the imagination continuous glimpses of ‘the unlimited’ and the pure
relativity of scale.”

Lately, revisiting my potter's origins, I have made dog pots, playing
with form and function. I am enlisting the companionable dog image,
and inviting it to dinner so to speak. Daffodil Dog, 2007, is both a
useful and playful object, there for the benefit of the seated diners,
to be viewed from all sides and contribute to the occasion. There are
various sources for animal pots. The most affecting, for me, are the

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - February 2009

tobacco jars of the Martin Brothers. They are perfect examples of
superlative attention to detail, using virtuosic glaze and kiln skills, with
dynamic, even vitriolic effect. The technical demands and the obsessive
detailing do not create a veneer, or diminish the impact, rather it is
those processes that were executed with passion, and enlisted all of
the composite ceramic requirements, that illuminate these pieces. The
expressive characteristics of clay are exploited to the full; there is no
subterfuge or ambiguity here. I think they wonderfully illustrate this
quote of Mike Kelly: “Are must concern itself with the real, but it
throws any notion of the real into question.”*

Mine is cyclical practice; energised by the process of moving between
three or four themes. New information pertaining to those notions is
introduced simply though the process of waiting, living observantly,
and making. It is akin to the pleasure of rereading a favourite book: each
time you bring your new self to the book and discover previously over-
looked nuances and allusions. The same can be said of process inside the
clay practice. The material is ever changing, and the problems are never
ending. Every time a process is enacted or revisited, the clay artist is
given yet another opportunity to discover new expressive possibilities.
Process need not be a hindrance or a liability, or a tyranny. What is won-

derful about the clay practice is that process gives us so many chances.

REFERENCES: 1. Philip Rawson, Ceramics. Oxford University Press,
1971 2. Nicholas Baurriaud, Postproduction. Lukas and Sternberg,
New York 3. Philip Rawson, Ceramics. Oxford University Press, 1971
4, Nicolas Baurriaud, Postproduction. Lukas and Sternberg, New York.
Baurriaud quoting Mike Kelly,

This article was originally published in Ceramics TECHNICAL No. 27
2008. Debra Sloan is online at: www.bcpotters.com/members/debra_
sloan/default.html and www.debrasloan.com.

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