Inspiration vs Imitation Part 2 / Embracing the Universal / Breaking down the Tucker Four Black / Overwhelm
Inspiration.
Where do you find it? How did one get to where one got to? When is inspiration, imitation?
Ones work is a layer cake compiled over time. Choice, skill and chance. There does seem to be a stream of universal consciousness we all swim in together, sharing and exchanging ideas that bubble up. And a beauty and comfort in that universality of symbols of energy, nature and thought.
Speed.
But these days there are so many ways and places to spark and share ideas. Is it too much and too fast? Are they fed to you without a journey of finding? Do ideas have time to digest, percolate and evolve before you spit it back out in the world as YOURS?
I don’t know.
And even though sometimes it seems an idea comes like a flash of lightning, I believe there is a path that has been charted over time. The work takes time to evolve even if it is a kind of synergy that occurs when it comes together.
Here’s the story of the ‘Tucker Four Black’ and how it came to be. Via choice, chance and whatever else it takes a thing to be a thing!
Bookstores.
The Rubin Museum was one of my favorite spots in NYC. Specifically, the teahouse café and the bookstore, which is where I found this beautiful book ‘Himalayan Style: Shelters and Sanctuaries’.
The life, spaces, colors, and textures photographed in this book make my heart sing.
There is a small section on the Mustang region of the Himalayas where stripes in the colors of The Three Protectors, made from pigments of the local clay are painted on walls of rammed earth or stone. So beautiful!
Inspired, I went on a path to recreate these colors for my work with the intent of making big, loose stripes.
And this is where I landed. Embarking on the path of inspiration does not always equal re-creating exactly what you see, even if you want to.
The Process
It took about a year of tests and trials.
It started with trip to Bailey Pottery to look at clay body samples in person.
After testing a few different ones, I decided on a rich toasty brown clay only to discover (after making, showing and selling an entire collection of it) that it had cracking issues. So, forced to find another, came upon a super dark iron body which I love.
Then, ordering lots of underglazes, to test in my Cone 10 gas reduction firing.
Underglazes are commercially formulated to reproduce consistently and generally close in color to what you see out of the container. But a reduction firing is atmospheric and transforms the material. What you see is not always what you get.
Tested so many colors…which ones? Also here, a detour. Am I trying to recreate the colors of the three protectors exactly? Are there three? Do I want four? At some point along the way not only does the kiln transform the idea, but the whole inspiration goes through it’s own evolution.
Here are some of the tests I did:
The World is Big and Moving Fast.
I get the newsletter of Seth Godin and recently- Ecosystems that come and go. I am 61, soon to be 62. I come from a time of books, magazines, records, analogue phones etc etc. The shite has changed.
Even this morning, opening up the Word app and AI was at the top of the page, for the very first time, prompting me.
I don’t judge using AI to write. I just don’t find it helpful (at this moment in time). I enjoy writing, finding the exact right words, working out my thoughts. A while back I asked Claude.ai to help me write something, but it was like someone edited my document, but I could not see or remember what they changed. I got lost.
When google search first started having the AI compilation at the top of the screen, I was annoyed. Where is the serendipity of poking around for what you are looking for? The chance of finding things you did not even know you were looking for? But now, I read it through and see that it is a compilation, a tool. We humans are adaptable.
SPACE.
Peace. Michele
Remembering bookstores and the act of wandering:
· East West Books on lower 5th avenue in NYC
· The Open Center on Spring Street
· The Bodhi Tree in LA