| Sapporo |
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September 11-16, 2009 |
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| Sapporo Art Park |
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The sign for the current show "Art Fest of Clay & Fire". |
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| Outside installation at the entrance to the museum |
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Vertical Landscape |
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| Vertical Landscape, in the breeze. |
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| Yuko, Hokkaido Potters Society president, making opening ceramony
speech. |
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Entrance to our show |
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| Victoria Shaw, Oregon Potters Association president, giving her
demonstration. |
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Donna Cole, we prepared slabs for our demonstration the day before.
Our work space was in the loading dock of the museum. |
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| Rolling slabs so they can firm up a bit. |
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Placing them on cardboard we found to help absorb some moisture. |
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| Cutting small slabs to demonstrate decal transfer. |
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The silk screening had to be done the day before on the slabs that
were going to become the final demonstration box. |
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| Jim gives his Gallery Lecture |
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Donna gives her Gallery Lecture |
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| The day of our demonstration there was a tea cermony in the gallery. |
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| Denice is served her tea, the tea is foamy and the color of the
green shirt int his picture. High octane too!! |
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The tea bowl Jim was served tea in. |
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| A group was interested in my piece and wanted to know more. The
language of clay and art is universal. |
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I handed each person one of the clay business cards I made, they
all wanted to return them and were delighted when I said they could
keep them. |
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| Before out demonstration we went for lunch. The Art Park if filled
with art, these "sails" turned gently in the breeze. |
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The white objects floating on the water also turned gently. |
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| Jim and Donna are introduced for our Demo. Moko is on the right
to translate what we say. |
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Donna begins explaining how she will construct a box using rooging
tar paper to support the wet clay slabs. |
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| While Donna worked her slabs, I explained the process of photo
silk screening on clay. |
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The audience seems very interested. |
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| It was apparent we were communicating what we had intended. There
wasn't one day-dreamer in the crowd. |
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When I removed the silk screen after inking it, they all went Oooo,
Ahhh. Really!! |
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| Donna works on the lid, creating the suggestion of mountains in
both Portland and Sapporo. |
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The well traveled box is opened and the final piece is revealed.
More Ooo's and Ahhh's |
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| The finished piece is presented to Yuko. |
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Yuko asked if it would be alright with Donna and Jim if she presented
the piece to the Mayor of Sapporo. Representing the ties through
art Portland and Sapporo have had for 50 years. We said, OK. |
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| The piece is on display in the gallery. |
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Many had questions about the processes we used. |
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| The finished piece has a silk screened image of the Portland Skyline
on the long sides. |
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On the short sides is a silk screened image of the Sapporo sky
line. |
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| The lid has the suggestion of mountains and a stamped button for
the OPA and HPS. |
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| From the hotel room window in Sapporo we saw workers each morning
doing exercises before beginning work. |
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On our last day in Sapporo, the Hokkaido potters took us on
a bus trip to see several wonderful spots. The first was the Shin
Hongoh Memorial Museum.
Sculptor Shin Hongoh is pictured above. |
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| While we were waiting for the museum to open, this gentleman opened
his folding stool and sat to sketch. |
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Left - view the sketcher saw. Right - 12 foot tall sculpture. |
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| So many powerful images of his work. They are installed all over
Japan. |
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Next we went to view wood fired anagama kiln of Kazunao Azuma.
Kazunao is a HPS member and has several of of our pieces in his kiln
that is currently being fired in these photos. Jim has a piece in
this firing. The pieces were shipped over before the kiln was loaded. |
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| Ruri, in blue, translates what Kazunao says and our questions to
him. |
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It takes 11 tons of wood to fire the kiln. Kazunao uses modern
equipment to help. |
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| Hydrolic wood splitter |
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We head for the kiln shed |
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| The black square is the stoking port at the bottom of the hillside
built kiln. |
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Kazunao's wife stokes the fire. The firing will take 6-10 days
of stoking 24 hours a day. |
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| A view from the top of the hillside build kiln inside the kiln
shed looking down to the entry. |
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Another stoking. |
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| countless wheelbarrows of wood will be used. |
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Kazunao's clay pile. He said he has it delivered from the site
where is is dog out of the earth. We Americans buy it by the bag
already mixed up. |
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| Kazunao and his wife bid us Syonnara as we leave. |
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Next we went to Moerenuma
Park . The park is built on a landfill and contains many sculptural
areas. The park itself was designed as a sculpture. Here Moko
is sitting in front of the fountain which has a 45 minute presentation
that dazzles the imagination. |
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| The fountain |
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Denice presents her lunch, it really was beautiful. |
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| One has a fountain that overflows onto rocks that have a gentle
slope which direct the water into a mock river. |
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The mock river flows and returns a block away and recycles the
water. |
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| Earth dome with pyramid made of stainless steel. |
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View from atop the earth dome. |
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| the approach to the glass pyramid. |
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| At the opening of the show at the Art Park, the Hokkaido potters
society hosted a banquet to beat the band. |
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Warren Cole and I having lunch at the Art Park, yes, the beers
are great size. Two is usually enough. |
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| Donna tries Sake our last night in Sapporo. |
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