Jim Whitman

Ikebana Cubed No. 2

4.5 x 8.125 x 6"

White Stoneware with Layered Glazes

$200

An ikebana flower vase that embraces contradiction. A wheel-thrown well, intentionally set off-center, is encased by a hand-built hollow cube with soft, rounded right angles. The dark, rich, and layered glazes melt and drip against the raw, white stoneware.

Artist's Statement:

Oscar Wilde once said works of art are as useless as flowers, good for just a fleeting moment of joy.  If he's right, then the pursuit of uselessness in useful ceramic ware, i.e., making something that can both serve a function and serve as an object of beauty in its own right, is what motivates me as a potter. Indeed, I most enjoy making unusual vases, and because their only purpose is to hold “useless” flowers, I happily admit that most of my work is doubly useless—with the hope that each piece gives twice the amount of joy.

By twisting, folding, poking, prodding, and sometimes violently assaulting the clay, I try to capture its endless flexibility while also blurring the boundary between art and utility. Rather than seek perfect symmetry, I purposely distort my pieces, set them off-center, or juxtapose incongruent elements. With minimal use of color and glazes, my pottery celebrates the honesty and immediacy of raw, unglazed surfaces, which create a tactile bridge from me to you. I embrace, and try to encourage, the unpredictability of clay, as the space between intention and chance most often holds those moments of joy.