Chinese Pottery History

http://www.fineartregistry.com/articles/art-education/chinese-pottery.php

-what I could immediately tell, is that Jiang Rong does NOT use glaze on her stuff, and they say she has been using purple clay for more than 70 years now! WOW!!

http://en.yx-zs.com/

Violet sand....

there is some awesome little teapots they make, some 10 x 7 cm things, with engraved sumi-e & calligraphy, for the Green Tea -(ceremony)

I was thinking of learning Chinese when in Sydney, but life had other plans for me :D

Still, I admire the making, and USE of those miniature seeming pots & cups, cos I'm a greedy soul who drink a lot all the time, and this humble approach is very intriguing for me.

I am a Westerner, I realise... however hard to accept ;)

http://books.google.com/books?id=3zAP3tBBPEcC&pg=PA285&lpg=PA285&dq=jiang+rong+%2B+ceramics&source=web&ots=QjNFi_kdYE&sig=pcPDpbp36EB69UkBffAUt1ZCsnM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPT1,M1

4 amazing teapots, 2 of them really up my alley :) or however that spelling goes ;)
To me, that must be the total mastery of the clay, or what????

This name search linked me to a book; Wolf Totem, which describes life in Mongolia, a book that took the author 30 years to write, and since I am very fascinated by life on the Mongolian Plains, and their Wolves, which are said to be huge!!!!! :) -I might get it;

http://www.newsgd.com/culture/art/200412100074.htm

As I believe in reincarnation, I can see there is a chance I have some experiences from that part of the world in me. Others would be Gypsy, German <3, class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">hmmm... Well; and I must have been in Afghanistan, cos my love for that place is just insanely displased from an intellectual source or point of view :D

Well; another part of me reveled online. Thank God we live in a world where we can say and "believe" whatever we chose to! I've got a Norwegian friend here, who just is about to join a mosque! He is gonna convert to Islam. That is contra-something... hahaha, but I find it amazing that he follows his inner leanings, rather than playing cool. Whats that gonna be good for? And I can tell, it has already made him a humbler and less restrained soul. Good on him! :D

Not that I know too much about Islam, but there is 4 or 5 pillars of acknowledgement to be accepted;
one of them is to give 4% of your wages to people in need! Great! Another is to accept that Allah is the only God. That was easy, as he said; cos off course there is only One God; and it does not matter what we call it!!! But since Christianity has God, spirit and Christ, the son, he found it awkward. Personally I have no trouble adjusting to the whole symphony, but no fundamentalism, off course. I fancy Catholicism, the beautiful saints and angels, and too; Buddhism is supreme. But interresstingly enough, Buddha is no God, he is a "philosopher", A bhodi; someone who is enlightened about human life.

All this, and we kind of roll back into what I want to do as an installation for end-of-year
project. My sculptural clay-genitalia & pots & sticks & thoughts go towards the understanding of human life somehow. I chose to make a very earth and practical application of the "Heaven, Earth and Man Principle" from Dharma Art. Where divine inspiration (rain & sun) comes from Heaven; creative energy; Earth gets fertile so Man can live & reproduce!
Dharma tells us HOW TO LIVE harmoniously for sustainability for benefit of both earth and man.
I have in my installation chosen to see the sexual and creative energy as different expressions of the the same impact, where a baby is the ultimate creation for any human. Just like Dharma Art is NOT focused on what medium is used, rather how the process works, so have I focused on the process, rather than the babies :)

I also will look at Tantra as it originally was a woman's religion in India. Tantric Zen is also interesting, originating in Tibet, where HOW TO RELATE is the primary concern. How to deepen the intimate connection between two people. It is NOT about different sexual positions.
That part develops naturally once the persons are connected :)
Maybe that will be a point of departure for next years work.

I cannot tell WHO I am quoting, but I find it a very wise saying;
Peace starts in the bedroom!
I believe personal satisfaction, thinking of it in Tantric terms; where human can experience God through intimacy, is a key factor for controlling the destruction of our selves. Happiness is - as we all agree on; what we all ultimately strive for, and therefore a goal to strive for for anyone.
There is built into our survival instincts to avoid pain; and to seek pleasure, probably developed through thousands of years experience :D

The guys in Africa has roots back 80.000 years, and we all seem to derive from them; the Aboriginals is about 50.000 years old; and then there is the rest of us, here & there :D

I am not too fuzzed about those details, as I think it is irrelevant for what I to explore, but I find it amazing on behalf of the ethnic groups. :) Then again, the first made piece of ceramics found is Venus from Milo, the voluminous Goddess, found in the Tsjec Republic 26.000 years ago. Pottery as such is said to be 14.000 years old, emerging from the Japanese Jomon, and the Siberian plains.

I do not see ceramics it as anything mystic, only evolution of man; it proves to have ceremonial but also practical applications. What IS mystic to me tho, is the information one can draw out of a piece of "something" - easily since archaeologically important - a piece of ceramics by tele-kinesis.

How one gets a feeling or sensation once presented to it or touching it.

I am primarily interested in certain "feels" of pots from certain ages in different cultures. Dark ages in China f.ex. Minoan culture in Greece. Medieval times in UK. I like the raw and direct feel; where nothing comes between me and the expression of the pot. Lord know why, and hopefully I may find out one day! Maybe it has to do with the soul-expression of the makes of the pot that shines through. Like one say about old versus modern architecture where the older style hoses has value because of the handmade ornament +++, while modern architecture seems dead & cold & SOUL LESS!

Maybe I somehow believe that less civilized cultures had more of a direct access to their own immediate self, while as we cultivate, we loose a lot of that through norms & intellectual (ego?) structures. We believe a lot rather than being a lot. Maybe. Maybe childlike, but not really, only the immediacy of a child can resemble what I try say.