From studiopotter at studiopotter.org Wed Sep 1 14:36:12 2004 From: studiopotter at studiopotter.org (studiopotter@studiopotter.org) Date: Wed Sep 1 14:37:17 2004 Subject: Studio Potter Magazine -- Current Issue and Subscriptions Message-ID: Hello, Fall is soon upon us, and if you have not had a chance to read the current issue of Studio Potter magazine yet, definitely put it on your end-of-summer must-read list! More good news: you can subscribe to Studio Potter on-line through our newly opened z-shop at safe and secure Amazon.com. Visit our subscription page for details: http://studiopotter.org/subscribe/ About the current issue: COVER: Pioneer Spirit, 1995. Ceramic installation by Gen Kozuru, Seaside Momochi Park, Fukuoka City, Japan. IN THIS ISSUE: Sometimes, although no theme has been established, a thread mysteriously connects many of the articles in a given issue. As we assembled the material for the current issue, a sense of communication across generations seemed to crop up repeatedly: older potters handing down their experience, younger potters both honoring those who came before and asserting their right to their own perspectives. Traditionally these transmissions have come down family lines, and there are, surprisingly, still families containing several generations of contemporary ceramic artists. Gerry Williams sought out some of them and has gathered their experiences in Lineal Identity; our thanks to the seven families who shared their stories, and to Louise Cort and Joe Molinaro, who introduced us to the Matsubayashi and Vega families respectively. Meanwhile, in the colleges which have largely replaced traditional craft training, a generation of teachers is retiring and new energies, ideas, and technologies are rising to take their place. Dennis Stevens outlines some of these technologies and calls for their integration into the task of preserving and transmitting craft knowledge. Linda Sikora, interviewed here by studio potter Mark Shapiro, represents a new generation of teachers and makers reinvigorating pottery's history and potential. The field is changing because the world is changing, yet people continue to be grabbed by clay and pulled into its past, present, and future. The idea to publish excerpts from Richard Jacobs's "Letters to a Young Potter" came from the young potter herself, Christa Assad, who felt that they would encourage others as they had her. The genesis of this remarkable relationship is detailed in her introduction; its evolution over more than twenty letters has connected two people with very different lives. And because the issues touched upon in the letters are larger than the two individuals involved, it seemed fitting to open out the conversation and include the work of other young potters with a passion for form, process, and utility. In "Clay and Life" William Bryant Logan ponders the structure of clays and their metaphoric implications. We are grateful to Riverhead Books for permission to reprint this chapter from his book Dirt, and to Pamela Vandiver for the use of her photograph from Ceramic Masterpieces, a new edition of which is in preparation. Finally, our clay universe has been diminished by the passing of three of its respected elders: Jane Hartsook of New York, English potter and writer Mick Casson, and William Parry, subject of an article by Ed Lebow in Studio Potter Vol. 31 No. 1. Inspired teachers, makers, and advocates, all participated in the beginning of the twentieth-century revival of interest in ceramics. They are honored here and will be sadly missed, but each has left a vital legacy to be carried on. Best regards, The Studio Potter Editorial and Web Team