“Art is Long, Life is Short”
– Hippocrates
…means a lot more to me today!
These works have taken years to create, both literally and figuratively. They capture and comment on the human condition, which hasn’t changed for millennia.
Beauty is both created and found, but all things end allowing new things to spawn. So the dance goes on. The skills and craft accumulated over a lifetime will one day pass too (note: from Wikipedia …the prevalent Japanese aesthetic nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.”
These sculptures are like ancient relics dug from the forgotten earth only to be displayed anew and with a fresh coat of varnish. Their fullness, to be understood by so few, posses the energy to inspire many.
On a short note one can approach them from the perspective of the human form they loosely resemble. Though intentional, it is as much a mistake to judge them anatomically as it is wrong to judge a person only by the clothes they wore, the color of their skin, or the style of the hair. But here is the paradox, to not consider the color of the clay or the construction of the form is to deny significant insights to the work, its creator, and the fuller society in which it is expressed.
One of the tenants of the martial art, Kendo, (or of the potter if you prefer) is that the practitioner practices the same moves over and over to the point where when actually executing the moves in earnest, the mind melds with the whole person and only the moment of movement exists. Simplicity performs the action. In all movement breathing is paramount. I still remember a 16mm film I saw in grad school after gaining a certain skill and understanding in the craft of throwing. A Japanese potter of renown talked at length about the imperative to breath while making a pull, up to that moment, I had always done the opposite. Breathing properly has always been a difficult thing for me, what for asthma, etc. It is also something I constantly try to improve, just like throwing, drawing, or working on a computer.
Lines tie things together. Though in nature few things are truly lines, save of course for spider webs and silk. Most lines are the edges of shapes. Lines also define visually the boundaries of objects on a two dimensional plane. In these capacities lines are in service to the form, but in the hands of a master, the line itself becomes a work of art. A Zen painter takes years to attain oneness with their tools and the substrates they work on. An understanding of the life force flowing in a line by the master is such that the execution of a single stroke can be as rich and complete as the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.