Yesterday afternoon, after driving through some crazy rain and battling the downtown Bostonites for parking, I was able to make it over to Pucker Gallery for an artist talk by Hideaki Miyamura. The gallery is beautifully laid out and pairs Miyamura's work with paintings by Jim Schantz - a powerful combo. Miyamura was an extremely humble man who spoke for about a half hour about his process, his work, his history.
Miyamura grew up in Japan, the son of architects. He eventually found his way into traditional ceramic apprenticeships, where he honed his skills at the wheel. He became increasingly interested in glazes, based in part on his love of Chinese temmoku pots, which helped define his shapes: pure, smooth, with generous curves and often, tiny necks and rims. He works in a custom porcelain, again to ensure an absolute perfect surface for his glazes.
I'm not a big glaze fan but recognize this is a major shortcoming of mine - I am so much more about texture and form and atmosphere. Miyamura's work really opened my eyes to the discipline and work needed to really push this part of the pots. He has made tens of thousands of pots and had thousands of failures to get to this point. He continues to fire tens of tests pieces in every kiln. I really admire his work ethic and the vessels are a testament to his investigations.
The images above come from Pucker's website and the work is on display until mid-April.
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