In The Body

Terracotta pitcher 15 x 13 x 17 cm. Fired to cone 06. Photo by Jean-François Davignon.

I love black clay, red clay, iron speckled stoneware and terracotta. It's the colour that attracts me. This type of naturally coloured clay has more character than white clay in my opinion. As well, I'm much more interested in the form, the things I can do to the clay itself, rather than a painted on type of decoration.

With the green pitcher I kept it simple by just exaggerating the throwing lines. Keeping it simple is, I think, becoming my trademark. I like not only the colour of the clay, but my glazes. I love the contrast here between the orange terracotta and the deep green glaze that where applied more thickly, ran in waves of turquoise here and there. The inside of the pitcher is unglazed so it can be used to decant wine. The terracotta takes the edge off of acidic wines and improves the flavour.

I like to tease the clay while on the wheel, or get rough with it knocking it purposefully off centre to make it wobbly, organic, wabi sabi. I like deep grooves, carving designs in a pot, pinching little spouts here are there, pushing out from the inside, stretching it on the canvas table and textures. Here's another example~

Stoneware plate, thrown and altered. 20 x 28 x 2.5 cm. Photo by Jean-François Davignon.

These days I'm dividing my time between the pottery and teaching dance. Today is a day off of teaching as we're between sessions, so I'm in the studio dancing with the clay instead. I'm working on a large lidded jar and some serving dishes. I have plans for a colander (because our plastic colander broke) and a friend asked me about berry bowls. Mmmmm, berries. I have wild raspberry bushes in the yard. We are still buried under huge piles of snow, so I don't know when I'll be eating berries off the vine, but there are a few grassy spots showing here are there where the snow didn't drift. The Canadian geese are overhead, honking forlornly, looking for open water. This is the latest spring I have experienced here in Québec since my arrival in 2002.