howdy all, a lil hooky was played today, rose, ali and myself took a trip to stirling to a lil fancy gallery called Aptos Cruz - Milton Moon renoun adelaide potter now in his 80's is there demoing this week, this intrigued me as i've never met the guy and my only claim to fame is that he gave me 1st prize at the campbelltown art show a few years ago...thank you mr moon!
We did a glaze class at Uni a few years ago with his son Daimon Moon now a dr so i hear.. a very clever guy indeed and just listening to MM today took me back to a class i went to with Greg Daly who quoted from the book of the dead before each session... entertaining none the least and also an incredible thrower..
MM speaks in slower sylables than I and a sentence could be said to be ambling...you just never know where it will end up!! It was interesting, informative and perhaps bordering on mesmerising as we watched him spin his wheel, his home made version of a kick wheel without kicking.. the whole mechanism is soundless other than a stick winding in into momentum, the wheel itself is made of concrete and supported on a metal tripod and some wiz bang engineering i suspect!
After listening and watching and craning our necks to see exactly what he was doing with which part of each hand we wandered into the upper part of the gallery where his show was..MM is quite the writer and has published 4 books in as many years and i suspect would prefer to amble the day away in piece and quiet in his own studio than chat to the likes of us asking questions of the most simple kind...he spoke of his pots becoming something other than craft and the otherness that happens.. after destroying several forms a few squeaks of despair could be heard but not from me, a rather characteristic chuckle at the performance of destroying ones work instead!
hope you enjoy the slideshow, the video is made on my phone device so the sound isn't great but you get the idea as he talks to one of the crowd about S cracks..and thankfully the wind storms have passed by and all is quiet again....back to pots sometime tomorrow blended in with work too..
What a charming man, like his work. That tall vase would be a nice shape for coil building. If you get tired of potting, you can always go into video production, nice job :)
ReplyDeleteHi Ang,
ReplyDeleteFinding the Milton Moon video on your site was really amazing, because I so very nearly asked you, last time I sent a comment, if you knew of Milton Moon! I have admired his work from afar for the last two or three years, and did not know if he was still alive, or if he even lived in your part of Australia any more. Ceramics Today had an article about a kiln he made, a sort of miniature anagama that was wood and gas fired. It is a nice little thing, all curves and has a short round brick chimney. www.ceramicstoday.com/articles/moon.htm
Anyway, thanks for the video and slideshow of his work, it was lovely to see him still alive and potting.
hey trace, oh yeh that shape is going to be next on my large scale list..i checked last night and my pots are still workable...oh yey! hehehe, most of the editing is thanks to imovie wish i could take all the credit! i do love making them though...cheers
ReplyDeletehi peter, its the 1st time i've met him, yep he's still in the hills quietly working and thanks for the great article, my buddy rose was looking at his wheel and he's selling some now so we may yet get to see his kiln,..how cool would that be..
Great video, Milton doesn't look 80 and what an interesting wheel he works on. His glaze surfaces are unique and very inspiring to me, thanks.
ReplyDeletehi linda, yep he's still crackin' on..the surfaces are incredibly layered all the way from marking into fresh pots to the glaze surface..did you click on peters link? its a great article..cheers ang
ReplyDeletedamn, i hope i'm there in my 80's, great vid ang. i wish a prof of mine would have quoted from the book of the dead before class... what a scream
ReplyDeletehey jim, i reckon you will and sofia will be heckling you from the crowd!! that was a pretty funny wkshop with greg daly.. i should pull out the vids from that they're pretty bad though done on my old phone...
ReplyDeleteThat is a HUGE wheel! lots of room to work on. He does really neat work.
ReplyDeletehey jess the wheel is fully manual though you have to wind it up!! you would have enjoyed that demo...mesmerising..
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