Reflect. Respond.Bede Clarke & Ted Saupe Early September 2019

BEDE CLARKE & TED SAUPE

Bede's Statement:

My goal in making this work has been to create quiet, simple pots, which like a good meal leave a healthy, full feeling. Pots like these have been my constant companions for forty years. They are forms and surfaces that I never grow tired of. They are rooted in ceramic history; yet, I hope they reflect a personal and individual quality of feeling. Above all, these pots are intended to be good to live with and interact with on a daily basis. They are made with others in mind. For me, good pots spring from compassion. My working method amounts to simply wishing the work well at each stage of creation. Always, I return to the clay trying to bring as much sincerity as I can muster to bear on the work.

Ted's Statement:

In some ways it’s a strange marriage of influences, in other ways it makes sense. I am most directly interested in the utilitarian pottery of the southeastern United States from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the country pottery of Oribe, Japan. Both styles of pottery were made for the storage and serving of food. Both were fairly simply made with minor decoration and glazing. And both were made in a spirit of directness and respect for the material and the process. I have always loved these pots from different cultures and am really trying to capture some of the freshness and strengths of these two influences.

My work is always autobiographical whether I am working figuratively or architecturally, or even when making vessels. It is always about history and/or age, and always tells a story, a personal narrative. I rely on memory, free association, and daily life events as my subject matter. Most recently my children have been a big part of the picture. Prior to that a trip to Crete to study Minoan archeology was my source of inspiration.