expressive freedom beyond words.
Imagination vs Traditional clay ..... Rosette Gault
As a 7 year old, a fresh made work of clay would fall apart in my clumsy little hands after it dried. I called this catastrophe the "heartbreak of ceramics." Clay refused to behave unless I babied it. Finicky!
Anyone starting out in our field of traditional clay has to tame this beast. Drama!
Nothing could keep me out of the studio as I struggled to imitate indigenous masters and elders in 1970 Over time, I got to know clay particles blindfolded, the way a pianist can with a keyboard. I wondered and wondered and searched and searched outside my self for the missing sense of expressive freedom. I'd have to make do! Meanwhile there was the inner search involving the development the type of prayer life that transforms and opens awareness from within.
By 1990, artists well familiar with limits of traditional clay noticed something different about size of my new work in paperclay and begged for secrets! I had a choice and I had the long term view of advance to a more sustainable environment. The more artists the faster we c would know and the sooner maybe artists as a group could contribute. What delight to see how vast the imagination is. The first ever artists handbook with most of my methods was published in USA, Europe and New Zealand/Australia. Elder ceramic sculptors very senior to me in 1992 gave radical methods like wet/dry a go and through trial. Cultural or gender bias dissolved over time because no one could argue with the truth from a kiln. We have many studio companions today thanks to very many people involved in front and behind the scenes whose imaginations were served.
Color cover of the 64 pp first edition 1992, subsequent printing were BW cover. Q&A illustrated. Much updated, with photos as tech permitted over the years. See the art work featured on the cover.
