November Issue 2001
Pit-Fired Pottery By Jim Lux Opens November 10 at Craven Allen Gallery in Durham, NC
Pots, an exhibition of pit fired pottery by Jim Lux, opens at Craven Allen Gallery in Durham, NC, November 10 and continues through Jan. 12.
Jim Lux's pots are a combination of instinctive craftsmanship, and spontaneity. Making such large, thin-walled pots resting on narrow bases is technically demanding, but for Lux, "time disappears and decisions flow. . . Paddle away that slight asymmetry? Push the clay out to create a slight asymmetry? All of these questions arise and I react to them before the words that ask the questions are verbalized in my head."
Lux takes his inspiration for the smooth, elegant curves of his pieces from ancient clay pottery, where the maker's hand is often in evidence, and the tactile sense can be as rewarding as the visual experience. "I build each piece from coils of clay pinched together. Then, I carefully scrape the surface smooth and gently nudge the form into something that pleases my eye and soul. How their curves and surfaces feel are just as important as how they look." After firing his pots, Lux paints thin layers of colored clay slips on their surfaces to create a blank canvas, on which smoke and fire makes its mark. Lux pit fires his pieces with combinations of charcoal, pine straw, wood shavings and paper. Random patterns of carbon deposits cover each piece, evidence of the firing process.
Lux holds a BFA in Ceramics, with a minor in painting, from East Carolina. He maintained a clay studio in Creedmoor for several years and has exhibited widely. More recently, he pursued a master's degree in art history at UNC in Chapel Hill, before discovering that, "while I enjoy reading and writing about art, there's something stronger in me that needs to make clay objects." Born in New York, he grew up in NC, and lives in Durham.
For more information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings or call the gallery at 919/286-4837.
Jim Lux - Artist Statement
Looking at the pots for this show, I feel a certain sense of satisfaction. I had put pots away for several years and since coming back to them a few years ago, I feel as if I've gotten to know the clay again. I am one with the mud - sometimes, at least. They say that art is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. The work, though - the process of making the pots - is such a joyful and satisfying thing for me that I barely break a sweat at the thought of that 90% part. I've said it before and I'll say it again: It is the making-the "process" of creating-that drives me.
Of course, the pots that result interest me as well. They stand as a record of the time spent carefully constructing each piece. Most of the thousands of decisions that go into making a pot for me are subconscious, though they are decisions nonetheless. When I'm making pots, time disappears and those decisions flow. Smooth that tiny bump? Scrape away that nick in the wet clay? Paddle away that slight asymmetry? Push the clay out to create a slight asymmetry? All of these questions arise and I react to them before the words that ask the questions are verbalized in my head. It's instinct, I guess.
That collection of instinctive actions is what makes up a pot. I spend a lot of time scraping and smoothing to make a pleasing, supple, tactile surface and the graceful curve of the pot's profile. Then, almost always, I make a quick, gestural opening at the top. Like the observation someone made that my pots look as if they've been plucked from a tree, I want that final moment of shaping the pot to be reflected in this uncalculated and imperfect opening that meets the space contained by the calm, simple walls of the pot. The Shakers always incorporated some imperfection into their carefully crafted objects. Nothing's perfect, or should be. I like that.
I'm not concerned about art vs. craft or whatever. I know that my pots are an honest expression of me and the best pots that I can make. They are, though, pots - just pots. Hence the title of this show. Pots - as simple as that. Are they containers of space? Reminiscent of natural grown objects? You decide. What are they to you? As you touch them, hold them and experience them, you are the final step in the process of their making.
Selected Exhibitions:
North Carolina Artists Exhibition, 1984, NC
Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Ceramics: The Oriental Influence, 1985, The Arts Council,
Wilson, NC
A Clay Expose, 1985, Craven Arts Council & Gallery,
New Bern, NC
Wood Fired Pottery: Two Approaches, 1985, Cedar Creek Gallery,
Creedmoor, NC
Juried Exhibition of North Carolina Crafts, 1986, NC Museum
of History, Raleigh, NC
North Carolina Clay, 1992, NC State University Gallery,
Raleigh, NC
Raleigh Fine Arts Society Artists Exhibition, 1999, Gaddy-Hamirich
Gallery, Raleigh, NC
New Work: Jim Lux and Paul Hrusovsky, 1999, Craven Allen
Gallery, Durham, NC
Seventh Annual Juried Artists Exhibition, 2001, Page-Walker
Arts Center, Cary, NC
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