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> ON KARATSU CERAMICS An Essay by Betsy Williams

> MY RITE OF PASSAGE An Essay by Carolyn Lobeck



  For artists there is no such thing as progress.
It's only a deepening.

—Isamu Noguchi


BETSY WILLIAMS

My experience in clay is idiosyncratic. From day one my training has been in Japanese methods, beginning with my experience at a small Japanese pottery studio in Manhattan in 1992 and culminating in the completion of a 4½ year apprenticeship in Karatsu, Japan in 1999 and my return to the US. I work in a certain way drawing from a repertoire of traditional skills.

But in my work, there is another strong force which I think of as a kind of ‘un-learning.’ My urge to create pushes me to find something I can bring to the centuries of traditional skills that precede me, something spontaneous, relevant, and current. Through my training I learned a vocabulary in clay, and through my work now I communicate using this vocabulary.

Central to my work are the integrity and beauty of the materials, and the firing, which is done primarily with wood using age-old techniques in a kiln I built myself in 2001. The intensive wood-firing experience enhances the depth of the glaze colors as well as the color of the clay bodies.

Simplicity, stillness, visual rhythm and the dynamic between pieces are important elements in my designs. My work, whether functional or sculptural, is meant to heighten our awareness during everyday moments, - moments that while repeated over and over throughout one’s lifetime, are nonetheless never duplicated.

THE WORK

I work in the Karatsu tradition, which for centuries has emphasized wheel-throwing techniques through repetition to create a paradoxically spontaneous and relaxed style.

enbi means "beauty of the flame"



space space


"Space, like silence, is a continuous presence which can be defined only by interruption."

     —Joan Hugo
from the introduction to "Seiji Kunishima"

My work is currently featured in a two-person show, "Grace in Fulfillment," at Weyrich Gallery in Albuquerque (Louisiana and Candelaria), and in a collaborative show - with Isabella Gonzales - entitled "Sympathetic Resonance" at Rift Gallery in Rinconada, New Mexico. I am preparing now for my next firing which will hold pieces for the upcoming American Pottery Festival at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis in September, and am also working now on plans for a recycled vegetable oil kiln (something I've been wanting to build for a long time). Please look for my new work later in the summer.
(This website was updated on June 29, 2008.)

Thank you for the opportunity to share my work with you. This website is an online portfolio, and I am currently working on a 'shopping' page. In the meantime, please e-mail me about a specific piece or prices. Please check the "EVENTS" page for upcoming events, shows, and workshops, and visit our gallery if you are in the area. For a link to the gallery and other interesting places, please visit the "LINKS" page.


Betsy Williams
Dixon, New Mexico

Visit the RIO GRANDE SUN to read more about me and my work.

P.O. Box 518    Dixon, NM 87527    505.689.1009    riftgallery@yahoo.com

© 2003-2008




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