Studio Potter Magazine -- Current Issue and Subscriptions

[studiopotter at studiopotter.org]

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