Top Australian ceramicist Janet DeBoos visits Dunedin this week to share her knowledge with Otago potters. She tells Rebecca Fox about a career spanning five decades.
Making a cup of tea takes on a whole new meaning for Australian ceramicist Janet DeBoos.
One of her constant pleasures is choosing a cup for a ''particular drink at a particular time of day''.
Made by herself of course. Creating cups is what she most likes to do and is the first thing she does to ground herself when she is in her studio.
''They seem to me to be the fundamental object of domestic life, closely followed by bowls and jugs.''
DeBoos, Emeritus Fellow, School of Art, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University, also enjoys the highly decorative work they provide.
''To be able to try to make sense of cultural differences, and geographical opposites through a hybrid of decorative arts history and the natural world is a great pleasure and helps me understand where I stand in the world.''
Although, she admits the hardest thing about making pottery is starting.
''Stephen de Staebler, a ceramic sculptor from California and one of my idols said: '... an artist only starts to actually make art when the pain of not working exceeds the pain of working ...'. Very true. I engage in a lot of studio ''procrasti-cleaning''.''
Her studio is in the mountains outside Canberra where she has her home.
''I feel completely grounded when in my studio, making and thinking about making. There are animals outside, many birds, and I like to start each day with about an hour of ''doing nothing'' except watching the birds and drinking tea.''
Growing up
It was in her early school days in Newcastle that she had her first clay experience and met her first potter through her parents, although it was the potter's husband, a Welsh poet, who inspired her.
''I fell in love with the idea of the poet, and wanted to write when I grew up.''
It was not until the family moved to Sydney, which she regards as her home town, that her real connection to pottery began - thanks to her mother.
Her mother was a chef and took up pottery in the 1960s so there was a kiln and wheel at home in a small studio.
''I fiddled a bit there and then started classes at night at the local tech' college when I was still at school.''
But as an ''academic'' pupil at school, science was her thing and she headed to university to do a degree in it.
She continued to do night classes while at university. At a special glaze course, her teacher, Peter Rushford, head of ceramics at East Sydney Tech, suggested she study ceramics full-time.
''It had never really occurred to me that that was possible, although I knew people doing it. But the seed was sown.''
She started full-time study in ceramics in 1970.
''It seems odd when my parents were so arts friendly that I hadn't thought to study art, but it was assumed in those days that if you were quite competent academically then you would follow an academic path.''
She had found her calling, discovering working with clay was ''immediately compelling'' and she found the technical side of the art fascinating, and came easily due to her science background.
''I found throwing relatively easy. I could lose myself in it.
''The idea of self-sufficiency was abroad, and the idea of running a pottery was very attractive. I loved what people were doing, but as much I loved the people, I felt that I had come home.''
It was a great time to be involved in the creative arts as there was a great interest in things hand-made, plenty of employment to help subsidise artists' work and low or no educational fees, she said.
''It was the most privileged time I can think of for following your aspirations. And our needs - to be able to function in the world - were so much less than they are now.''
Full circle
This has changed and is changing again, she said.
''There is a lot at the moment that reminds me of the 1960s and 1970s - the student body is active in terms of their demands for education for the first time since then, there is a rejection evident initially in the slow food and ''tiny house'' movement of the way we have come to live.''
As a result there has been a growing interest and demand for domestic pottery.
''A reawakened and urgent concern about the environment and sustainable practices, and an engagement with the idea of community.''
The major difference is the disadvantage of the student loan debt young people face linked with the advantage of being ''wired'' - connected through the internet.
''The internet market for selling pottery or advertising sale is enormous.''
As a discipline, ceramics has gone in a complete circle.
''There is a growing interest in learning skills again, and technologies, as these have been absent from many school curricula in any meaningful way for many years.''
There are also a surprisingly large number of potters who have viable businesses making functional ware and are responsible for the grassroots movement to offer private classes to make up for the closure of college ceramic courses.
As an art form it has also changed, spreading out into the wider art world to be included in installations, performance, collaborations and in mixed and multi-media.
''This is particularly the case with digital technologies now and two team-based practices are growing.''
While the ''disposable society'' phase impacted on ceramics negatively, it has become a positive impact.
''I did several works on this theme many years ago called ''Reflections on Use'' which used porcelain cups and polystyrene. One work consisted of the number of polystyrene cups that a student might use having two coffees a day during school term, compared to one porcelain cup reused and washed and reused for the year. It actually changed use behaviour at school for a while.
''Pottery is increasingly viewed as a desirable, durable and meaningful alternative to the mass-produced and the throwaway.''
Teaching
DeBoos fell into teaching after being one of three students from her year offered a teaching job with the technical education system after graduation.
Her first job was in Canberra but she kept up her flat in Sydney, returning after four years to teach in her home town.
Eventually, she ''found'' herself back as head of the ceramics course she had trained in.
''I resigned after a year as I felt I didn't know enough to be in that position - I could only really teach what I had been taught. I needed to go out and learn about things, to find out what was true, and not true, about what we had been told.''
It has not been the end of her teaching, as after travelling with her family around the world, with some part-time teaching along the way, she ended up heading up ceramics at the ANU School of Art in Canberra for 15 years before retiring a few years ago.
''I have taught glaze for many years. It is endlessly variable and fascinating, but I have used relatively few glazes in my own work.''
Glazes are usually one of the last stages of making ceramics pieces but there is so much that can go wrong.
''The techniques are usually quite simple, but like science, they need repeatability to be valid. This requires practice.''
For DeBoos it is the way a glaze is used which gives its variation that interests her.
''I use the simplest of glazes - a nice sharp clear glaze.''
Her background in science also came in handy when it came to teaching glazes as she is able to simplify descriptions of what is happening while still being true to the science.
'' I also am quite comfortable using simple empirical testing techniques that are about the same skill level as cooking in a domestic kitchen.
''This is not the case with many teachers of ''scientific glaze technology'' who feel that by starting with molecular formulas they are being more advanced.
''Maybe I should call it 'sloppy science for good understanding'?''
DeBoos' work has been influenced by her relationship with Chinese ceramic practice, which began in 1996 at a symposium attended by Prof Zhang Shouzhi, a respected Chinese designer and head of ceramics at what is now Tsinghua University in Beijing.
At Prof Zhang's instigation, a set of her porcelain domestic ware designs were put into production at the Huaguang Bone China Factory, Zibo.
Retrospective
Last year an exhibition ''Janet DeBoos: A Survey'' was held at Craft ACT in Canberra showcasing work from every decade of her practice.
''It was very intelligently curated, that was such a privilege.''
The curator, art critic, Peter Haynes made connections between works and periods of work that DeBoos had not seen, selecting works that she would not have selected and omitting works she thought he would select.
''The reasons became apparent when I saw the show. When I work I am never thinking about how the audience might ''see'' the work.
''It is made for myself - a wonderfully selfish profession. It is through critiques and exhibitions that I come to understand what I have done.''
The exception to this is when she makes domestic pottery with someone else in mind and then she usually names the work accordingly.
DeBoos advises young or new potters to be ''be curious, wonder at the world, work hard, practise and travel''.
''Be generous in your opinion of other kinds of practice and generous with your skills once you have acquired them. And work hard.''
She is visiting New Zealand to judge the Portage National Ceramics Awards before travelling south to hold a workshop for the Otago Potters Group this week.
''I don't hold to a particular aesthetic in judging works. I like functional pottery because of its interaction with people, so it's about relationships, and, in fact, that relationship that exists between the maker and the user is also something I enjoy seeing.
''I like work that sees the spaces between things, so rather than it being specifically this or specifically that, I find this grey or difficult area much more interesting.''
