Thursday 4 December 2008

That's where the light gets in...

I opened the kiln this morning after one of those stomach-churning firings and…As usual there were one or three glitches in what was overall a good firing. There was a tree on an unforgivable lean (which I have begun re-making); some blistered slip on commissioned a wedding bowl and a worrying crack through the hull of a boatload of moon-faced women.

I’m still ambivalent about cracks in non-functional works. While part of me shudders in the low-crafting aspect of it, I’m not sure as to why? Am I with the material or against it, controlling it or accepting it? And as Leonard Cohen sang

 

The birds they sang

at the break of day

Start again

I heard them say

Don't dwell on what

has passed away

or what is yet to be.

 

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.



4 comments:

Anna Davern said...

beautiful with the crack. beautiful with the crack plus prose.

Shannon Garson said...

Isn't a crack in a boatload of scared, moonfaced women appropriate? Maybe it was created by an Australian navy gun accidentally firing one of those "warning shots".

carole epp said...

i agree with shannon, there is something poetic about how it has altered the meaning of the piece (the piece itself is quite intriguing i must add). and i grew up in a family where leonard and his prose was near to godliness so perhaps i'm bias, but i think his words are completely appropriate in this situation. i've struggled with the same issue in my figurative work time and time again. i don't think i'm satisfied with any answer yet, but i do know that i've thrown out work that i regreted as it's replacement never did the original justice, and i've also learned the fine art of filling and hiding cracks!

Anonymous said...

But where are the children, overboard?
Great poston Alan Peascod too,cheers,hermetically