GUILD BRITISH COLUMBIA eee NEWSLETTER (G bc potters June 2002 Volume 38 Number 6 Rie Susuki Influences as a Potter ] would like to thank everyone who came lo see my show at the District of North Vancouver Municipal Hall this spring. It was a collection of my work made at the Capilano College ceramic studio in the past years and I wanted to show them. Growing up in Japan, | remember using Mashiko wares as daily use pottery. Every time we had our father’s work-related visitors, my mother dug out good porcelain from the boxes, abandoning those Zakki (cheap daily pottery) in the comer of Rie Suzuki Seaweed If 2002 salt- “he kitchen. fired with blucash plane, ' _ 36.0-x 25.0 x 25.0 cm 1 was suprising to sec Mashiko looking pottery made by Canadians when I first took a class at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1990. There, | met my long-term teacher Sam Kwan, and other wonderful potters Lari Robson and Rosemary Amon. The next year, | entered Capilano College. Although I took other workshops and worked with Japanese potters, I basically stadied at Cap. I have met many people who appreciate Japanese arts and [ think it helped me feel accepted in this foreign country. When I was working in Japan, | was always frustrated dealing with society, never satisfied with my country, and consequently Ididn’tpay attention to my culture. [realize now, if we leave ourhome country and look at it as an outsider, we see many god things that we never recognized before. I must admit that | began to appreciate Japanese arts and culture more than ever since I started doing pottery in Canada. The exhibition Sik Road: Asian Influences in BC Pottery at the Gallery of BC Ceramics is guite impressive. I am amazed to see how well Canadian potters incorporate their images and concepts of Asian culture with their aesthetics. Some conceptual approaches blew me away and I realize that this fusion art is a large component of Canadian art. Nowadays, it's not surprising to see a Caucasian person arriving at the doorofa potterin the Japanese countryside. Most well known Japanese potters are not disturbed to see a person with a different appearance as much as when Commander Perry came with big iron ships to Uraga Bay in the mid- nineteenthcentury. And now, Mashiko has become one of the renowned Japanese ceramics. | sometimes think about what would have happened if I stayed in Japan. | might have become a better potter or pursued a different career, but I'm quite sure that ] wouldn't have met so many people with different backgrounds as I have and wouldn't have been exposed to so many different artistic visions. [ have made many friends through pottery and I can't think of anything better than this clay thing: it brings people topether, allowing them to learn from other cultures and to integrate their own ideas and expenences. If all the people on this planet think Rie Suzuki Shells 2002 salt-fired with like potters, there helmer slip, about 23.0 x 13.0 cm each would be no wars,..maybe, Finally, I would like to say, Yakimono Banzai! Rie Suzuki