Pottery and Red Hawks
I just got back from an exam - I think I passed - so I can relax a bit and write something on the blog. Exam time just started and every week I will have an exam and in December I will have comprehensive exams from the whole year. Dios mio! I am not going to think about it just yet so that I don't get the stomach ulcers too soon...
In order not to get too crazy with school work, and to have some peaceful meditative time, I joined a pottery studio not far away from my house and I started last week. During last week's class I made my first pot which doesn't really look like a pot but if you look really closely you might find some resemblance... When an experienced potter makes a pot, within a few moments he makes a pot which has some nice round walls, some nice hollow opening in the middle, some shape, some stand, etc. When a novice potter makes a pot, after a long and laborous moulding, wetting, drying, etc., a pot is really a blob of clay, shaky, too thin on the bottom, too thick on the top, etc. It's just really hard to make a pot! I actually made two the first class and my arms hurt more afterwards than after a boxing class, believe it or not. It turns out you need strength to make pottery. That never occured to me... And also, the clay has a soul and a character. If you don't know what you are doing, it splatters all over you, slides away from the potter's wheel and hits the person sitting next to you, it gets into your face and your eyes, and into your mouth if you loose concentration... Pottery is like horseback riding - if you don't know what you are doing, the horse/clay takes you on a wild ride. Today morning was a little better. I put some better control to it and got better results. Now we are doing the ordinary "earthy" clay but after a while we will "graduate" to the white clay which is a pure breed (the previous being a donkey but I like donkeys very much...) and requiring more skill. Eventually, one day, I will make my own pots, cups, plates, tiles, fountains, lamps, washbasins, and whatever else can be needed in the house of my dreams (when I get it one day). For now it's just fun to be splattered all over among the ladies and gentlemen who share the passion for taming clay.
This weekend they forgot to put me on schedule at PQ so I jumped on the opportunity to go away from the city on Sunday and I went, together with Gosia and Rashid, Patrycja and Daniel, Maja and Piotr, upstate NY to a park where there was a Pow Wow - the meeting of the Red Hawk tribe. There was a really great music (original and unchanged Indian music with lots of singing and drums) and dances, and a lot of beautiful crafts and works of art made by the Indians of North and South America. It all started with putting up a flag, also the US flag (with the figure of the Indian on the horse on the stripes). Afterwards the man leading the festivities invited all the veterans of the wars (WW II, Vietnam) and those who were serving in the American army to come out and be known - they were honored and hugged. I was watching this thinking at first: "How weird, to be honoring those who work for your opressors..." But then I was thinking about it and I think I understand what it all meant. The Indian brotherhood keeps strong, at least the Red Hawk brotherhood - whatever the choices its members make, they are still part of the tribe and they will not be judged. The roots are the most important - brothers and sisters belong to the tribe as long as they want to be part of it. The whole atmosphere was really that of the free people, free enough to dance their dances and sing their songs, to dress in their traditional clothes, to present their works of artistic creativity, and to look in such way that you know for sure they are not any part of the corporate world because no office would ever employ them. It is just very important to these people to be free. Some time ago, reading about the Indians, specifically about North American Indians, I was thinking how these people especially cannot ever become part of the Western society of cubicles, short hair, suits, laptops, "guality time", gyms, 2-week vacations, etc. What's most important to them is fresh air and sun light, and not having to adhere to all these stupid and impossible rules and regulations of "civilized" society. I am saying "specifically" North American Indians because they were the ones who never suffered any feudalism, any type of empires (the way South American Indians did), any type of slavery or organized goverment, other than the tribal wisdom of the elders. When they laugh, they laugh from their heart and when they are sad, they are sad for real and not because that's "how you are supposed to feel". I know, I know.. a lot of the North American Indians are alcohol addicts, gambling addicts, lost and degradated. I think I would be degradated too if I came from this culture of freedom and vast open spaces and they would tell me I had to live in a cubicle... I don't think I would ever comply... It's hard for me to complay, and me - I was born in a "limited space" culture, so I can only imagine what they felt when their buffalos where all killed and the still horse was installed.
I was wearing my main chief necklace of dark amber at the Pow Wow and a few of the Indian jewellers wanted to see it and to hold it - they knew the healing and energetic value of stones. It it great to have all the energy of their hands in my amber necklace. Usually the Indian artists don't have any websites and don't even use e-mail (not wanting any technology spoil their ways)so I got their addresses to contact them in the future and to present their jewellery in my future art gallery. Until it's a gallery it will be a website gallery. My neighbor Grzegorz is working on the website and it should be ready in December. I will let you know when it's done. It will be one of these long-term projects to develop with time, to be doing a fun thing, to help others support themselves, to support myself a little, and to just be around works of human creative force, hold them in my hands, and pass them on to others. The gallery will be named "Syrena" - the mermaid of the Baltic sea, about which I will write in the future and which you will see on the opening page of the gallery. Buenas noches.
In order not to get too crazy with school work, and to have some peaceful meditative time, I joined a pottery studio not far away from my house and I started last week. During last week's class I made my first pot which doesn't really look like a pot but if you look really closely you might find some resemblance... When an experienced potter makes a pot, within a few moments he makes a pot which has some nice round walls, some nice hollow opening in the middle, some shape, some stand, etc. When a novice potter makes a pot, after a long and laborous moulding, wetting, drying, etc., a pot is really a blob of clay, shaky, too thin on the bottom, too thick on the top, etc. It's just really hard to make a pot! I actually made two the first class and my arms hurt more afterwards than after a boxing class, believe it or not. It turns out you need strength to make pottery. That never occured to me... And also, the clay has a soul and a character. If you don't know what you are doing, it splatters all over you, slides away from the potter's wheel and hits the person sitting next to you, it gets into your face and your eyes, and into your mouth if you loose concentration... Pottery is like horseback riding - if you don't know what you are doing, the horse/clay takes you on a wild ride. Today morning was a little better. I put some better control to it and got better results. Now we are doing the ordinary "earthy" clay but after a while we will "graduate" to the white clay which is a pure breed (the previous being a donkey but I like donkeys very much...) and requiring more skill. Eventually, one day, I will make my own pots, cups, plates, tiles, fountains, lamps, washbasins, and whatever else can be needed in the house of my dreams (when I get it one day). For now it's just fun to be splattered all over among the ladies and gentlemen who share the passion for taming clay.
This weekend they forgot to put me on schedule at PQ so I jumped on the opportunity to go away from the city on Sunday and I went, together with Gosia and Rashid, Patrycja and Daniel, Maja and Piotr, upstate NY to a park where there was a Pow Wow - the meeting of the Red Hawk tribe. There was a really great music (original and unchanged Indian music with lots of singing and drums) and dances, and a lot of beautiful crafts and works of art made by the Indians of North and South America. It all started with putting up a flag, also the US flag (with the figure of the Indian on the horse on the stripes). Afterwards the man leading the festivities invited all the veterans of the wars (WW II, Vietnam) and those who were serving in the American army to come out and be known - they were honored and hugged. I was watching this thinking at first: "How weird, to be honoring those who work for your opressors..." But then I was thinking about it and I think I understand what it all meant. The Indian brotherhood keeps strong, at least the Red Hawk brotherhood - whatever the choices its members make, they are still part of the tribe and they will not be judged. The roots are the most important - brothers and sisters belong to the tribe as long as they want to be part of it. The whole atmosphere was really that of the free people, free enough to dance their dances and sing their songs, to dress in their traditional clothes, to present their works of artistic creativity, and to look in such way that you know for sure they are not any part of the corporate world because no office would ever employ them. It is just very important to these people to be free. Some time ago, reading about the Indians, specifically about North American Indians, I was thinking how these people especially cannot ever become part of the Western society of cubicles, short hair, suits, laptops, "guality time", gyms, 2-week vacations, etc. What's most important to them is fresh air and sun light, and not having to adhere to all these stupid and impossible rules and regulations of "civilized" society. I am saying "specifically" North American Indians because they were the ones who never suffered any feudalism, any type of empires (the way South American Indians did), any type of slavery or organized goverment, other than the tribal wisdom of the elders. When they laugh, they laugh from their heart and when they are sad, they are sad for real and not because that's "how you are supposed to feel". I know, I know.. a lot of the North American Indians are alcohol addicts, gambling addicts, lost and degradated. I think I would be degradated too if I came from this culture of freedom and vast open spaces and they would tell me I had to live in a cubicle... I don't think I would ever comply... It's hard for me to complay, and me - I was born in a "limited space" culture, so I can only imagine what they felt when their buffalos where all killed and the still horse was installed.
I was wearing my main chief necklace of dark amber at the Pow Wow and a few of the Indian jewellers wanted to see it and to hold it - they knew the healing and energetic value of stones. It it great to have all the energy of their hands in my amber necklace. Usually the Indian artists don't have any websites and don't even use e-mail (not wanting any technology spoil their ways)so I got their addresses to contact them in the future and to present their jewellery in my future art gallery. Until it's a gallery it will be a website gallery. My neighbor Grzegorz is working on the website and it should be ready in December. I will let you know when it's done. It will be one of these long-term projects to develop with time, to be doing a fun thing, to help others support themselves, to support myself a little, and to just be around works of human creative force, hold them in my hands, and pass them on to others. The gallery will be named "Syrena" - the mermaid of the Baltic sea, about which I will write in the future and which you will see on the opening page of the gallery. Buenas noches.
posted by Asia Kabat at 6:41 PM
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