Mike Dodd - 2015

MIKE DODD

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goldmark

Price ÂŁ10

MIKE DODD

MIKE DODD

Phil Rogers

goldmark 2015

Mike Dodd ‘I love the process of discovery, of letting go. Of allowing one’s aliveness its own unique play – it’s fascinating to watch and to be absorbed by this relationship between disciplined technique and the free play of the heart’ I was still a secondary school teacher in Cambridgeshire with my own pottery department of one (me!) when I first encountered Mike Dodd’s pots. It was 1975 and I would visit Henry Rothschild’s ‘Primavera’ gallery in Cambridge most Saturdays. Here I would look at and handle pots that would form the aesthetic foundation of my own pot making a little later on.

‘Primavera’ for me at least, was, in those days, a treasure cave . . . downstairs in a shelved out basement I could pick up ash glazed work

by Richard Batterham, domestic table wares from Winchcombe, Walter Keeler’s early ash glazed pots prior to his salt glazing, the range from the Leach Pottery by that time under the stewardship of Janet Leach... exquisite little gems from Katherine Pleydell Bouverie, John Maltby, Colin Pearson, Lucie Rie, Michael Casson and of course Mike Dodd.

I also distinctly remember, about the same time, a photograph in Ceramic Review of an ash glazed bottle vase by Mike that had a deeply combed and expanded decoration that had a profound effect on the way I thought, and still think, about hand made pots. It was the obvious edginess of the throwing that I found so inspiring.. . the technique

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seemed fraught with danger and the resulting asymmetry really appealed to my sense of what a hand made pot should be ... not necessarily perfect. A piece of work that succeeded by daring to fail and displaying the sense of adventure and exploration that has typified Mike Dodd’s endeavours for the past, almost 50 years. Ironic when one thinks of what has happened in recent years with the plethora of sterile, hand made porcelain coming from mainly urban potters that would be better made in a factory. Sterile cylinders that display an almost total absence of the celebration of the plasticity of clay or the mysteries of glaze. I eventually gave up my teaching post in 1977 and moved to Rhayader in Mid Wales to open my first workshop. By this time Mike was well established as a maker, had become a member of the Craft Potters Association supplying prestigious galleries and was working with a four chamber climbing kiln in Cornwall.

I think Mike would have to agree that he has been something of a nomad potter over the years. There have been 6 potteries stretching from Sussex to Cumbria and Somerset via Peru. Throughout his career and his travels Mike has been the inveterate experimenter. The use of materials found locally have formed the basis of his work with glazes and, as I wrote in my book ‘ASH GLAZES’ 1992. ..

‘Mike has a fascination for the rocks, clays and silts that he finds in some abundance around his home in Somerset .. . currently at his 6th and Mike insists last pottery, he had previously been in

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Cumbria, a rocky and wild region of the UK especially rich in the kind of geology that a potter can really utilise. As with all of the places Mike has created workshops, even the one he helped create in Peru, Mike’s great concern and joy is creating stoneware glazes of great beauty and individual character from those materials on his doorstep. To this end he carries out endless experiments the success or failure of each leading onto the next and to the next ever mindful of Hamada’s assertion that to work closely and intimately with a limited number of materials and glazes is really the only way to achieve a truly individual style. By carefully utilising the granites, andesites 1 and hornfels 2 quarried in his area with the iron that leaches, bright orange, into a stream from a cave in the side of a hill and combining all of these with a variety of different wood ashes, willow and hawthorn in the main, Mike has developed a series of glazes that are amongst the most exciting seen in this country.’

That passage was written almost 25 years ago but it is testament to Mike’s curiosity as a potter that the experiments with new materials continue to this day. There are around 30 different glazes in this exhibition, each one the result of an enquiring mind and a great deal of laborious hard work. It is true that developing new glazes can be a slow process, especially if one has a large kiln that isn’t fired too often.

However, fitting in experimentation around the rigours of full time pottery making can be tricky, but Mike sees exploration and the organisation

1 Andesite 2 Hornfels

An igneous rock high in silica and part of the granite family.

A hard metamorphic rock formed by the contact between mudstone or other clay-rich rock, and a hot igneous body. Used in road mending.

that it requires as part of his role as a potter. Indeed, I would say that the constant search for ways to exploit materials close to him is fundamental to his life as a potter.

It has been said that the world, it would seem, was designed with potters in mind and among the locally won materials that currently feature in Mike’s glazes is a local basalt 3 from a nearby quarry. A magnificent large jar with raised pilasters has a variegated olive coloured glaze made with porphyry 4 and ash. An oval bottle with a paddled shoulder carries a glaze resembling caramel and is made with deposited silt from a local stream. A new blue ash glaze belongs to the family of Nuka and has that ‘Chun’ 5 effect one sometimes achieves from an ash high in phosphorus combined with a high proportion of silica and adorns a faceted jar; the blue silkiness of the surface changing to a darker, glassier glaze in the crevice of the facet.

I have in the past tried to convey to students the rather abstract concept that a good pot must have a skeleton. By that I mean that an apparent relaxed style or looseness in the throwing should be hung on a framework that is the ‘skeleton’ that lends the pot its underlying structure. A relaxed throwing style does not mean flabby or flaccid. . . there has to be a structure. Too many potters somehow confuse ‘looseness’ with an absence of structure. Of course, appropriate glaze choice and the judicious application of multiple glazes are also important in arriving at a harmonious whole. Clearly, these concerns have not 3 Basalt 4 Porphyry 5 Chun

An igneous (volcanic) rock that is low in silica content, dark in colour, and comparatively rich in iron and magnesium.

An igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals such as feldspar or quartz dispersed in a fine-grained feldspathic matrix.

A stoneware glaze typified by a blue cast but without any blue colourant. The blue comes from the optical effect of the refraction of light through the glass which, like an immiscible blend of oil and water, is infused with many small bubbles.

gone unconsidered by Mike. A squared bottle that he describes as a ‘Pilgrim Bottle’ has a Basalt glaze with Nuka and a finger wiped decoration. Both the glaze application, the subtle area of double dip or overlap and the spontaneous finger wipe through the wet glaze are entirely appropriate to the form. The slightly running glaze, the energy of the finger wipe are a perfect counterpoise to the solidity and organised structure.

For me at least, one of the characteristics of an ‘important’ potter, a potter with universally recognised gravitas, is consistency. . . consistency not just in the quality of the work... the craftsmanship... but also in the ongoing vision for ones work that can last a career or a lifetime or both. Looking at images of some of Mike’s earliest pots it would seem that, in the modern idiom, he touched the ground running. Unlike myself for instance, who needed a good many years to begin to make pots that had some of the qualities I required, Mike was making pots that had all of the hallmarks of craftsmanship and consistency almost from the very beginning. Having had the kind of education he received at Bryanston School from Don Potter and the exposure to pots of a certain nature by Leach, Hamada, Pleydell Bouverie and others, he quickly formed a view of what were the fundamental ingredients of fine pottery as far as he was concerned. ..

‘I am by nature.. . restless and curious. I want good strong form and glazes with depth, quietness and warmth – qualities which

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169. Small Textured Vase Two ash glazes 18 x 16 cm

can pierce deep into feeling and evoke a sense of interconnectedness and love, telling the same story in many different ways.’

Hamada Shoji 6 is a potter admired and often quoted by Mike who exemplified the idea of consistency throughout a career. .. a potter with a vision that was an abiding concern for almost 60 years of making.

One can see that same dedication to an ideal in the work of Mike Dodd. Speaking personally, about the only really valuable thing that I was taught at Art College was the notion of making or painting in series.

In other words... an idea shouldn’t be in isolation. .. an idea, once realised should lead onto the next and the next and so on. If we look at page 74 of Mike’s book ‘An Autobiography of Sorts’ 7 we can see a ‘Textured Pot’ made circa 1985-6. The exploration of this technique, which some people might think a recent departure, is almost 30 years old. This is an example of what I mean by exploration. .. the digging away at an idea for a very long time and the forms and surfaces getting better and better... a slow and deliberate examination and not a throw away idea which it might have been in the hands of another, less determined, artist. In this current exhibition there are 24 new pieces employing this technique.

I know because we have talked about it... that both Mike and myself are irritated by the easy and glib assertion that we and potters like Jim Malone and Richard Batterham are part of what became to be known

6 Hamada Shoji

7 An Autobiography of Sorts

Hamada was a Japanese potter who came to England in 1920 with Bernard Leach and began the Leach pottery in St Ives. Hamada was perhaps the most influential potter of the 20th century. He died a Living National Treasure in 1978 after a career of almost 60 years.

By Mike Dodd. Pub. By Canterton Books 2004.

195. Large Jar New porphyry & ash glaze 50 x 35 cm

as the ‘Anglo Oriental’ style. Of course... the debt to the East is there for all to see... we make pots with high temperature glazes in flame burning kilns and we can trace our potting ancestry, at least in the short term, to both Leach and Hamada. .. and, probably, the label was at one time a fair summation. However, I do think that we have now arrived at a point in time where we have moved the terms of reference to such an extent that the old adage has become nothing more than an excuse for observers not to have to think a little more deeply about what they are looking at. The Anglo Oriental tag is really nothing more than a starting point, and while the debt is there, if you ask Mike about influence he will talk about certain Chinese pots, English Medieval jugs, 15th century Italian drug jars or, in his words.. . ’lively or unpretentious work from wherever’. He will also talk about deference to the material and the way in which clay and all the allied materials can, with submission, suggest a creative path within themselves. The accumulated experience of 50 years of making together with the assimilation of so many ceramic influences now means that Mike’s greatest inspiration is his own creative momentum and the idea that I alluded to earlier... that the best of work comes from a long and meaningful examination of any particular concept.

When I look at Mike Dodd’s work I think about how annoyingly easy he makes it look. An immediately recognisable style built upon a repertoire of shapes, glazes, surfaces, deft cutting and mark making creates an overriding feeling of confidence. The pots sit with assurance

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300. One Handled Bottle Vase Broken slip. Peat clay glaze with iron dip 31 x 20 cm

commanding the space around them like three dimensional autographs... they could only have been made by one person. There may be struggle, there may be occasional dissatisfaction but he doesn’t let it show. The pots have a relaxed softness that gives little hint to any apparent tussle in the making. A life long struggle with his own psyche even, at a very low point, briefly dancing with suicidal thoughts and a ‘rocky’ personal life have been buried or submerged in a tapestry of work, the quiet gentleness of which belies any internal battles that no one other than his closest friends could guess at. Mike is a thinker, a man of intellect and conviction (before realising that pottery was his real calling he studied medicine at Cambridge). His thoughts about our place as human kind and the way we treat both the planet and our fellow creatures brought him to veganism at one point (now vegetarian) and an active and generous approach to charities that promote a more sustainable and kinder coexistence (particularly ‘The Human Potential Trust’ and ‘The Wildlife For All Trust’.)

So... it is with a great deal of gratitude and admiration that I salute Mike Dodd’s career so far and a sense of pride that, having picked him out back in 1975 as one of those three or four influential and seminal potters, we have become good friends and share many opinions and thoughts about our craft and the way it has developed and continues to evolve presently. We served on the CPA council together, often having to comment upon and make judgements about the work of others... so I do know and appreciate some of his thoughts

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18. Large Jug Basalt black, porphyry & ash glazes 39 x 21.5 cm

on current trends. I remember one day... we were looking at a particular potter’s work that had been submitted for membership as a fellow of the association. One of the other council members liked the work and commented that it was ‘very contemporary’. Mike thought for a moment and then offered this gem... he said ‘Mmmmm. .. contemporary.. . what does that mean?. .. Very temporary and largely a con’. .. Brilliant!

At a time in the history of our studio craft when the wheel and the sensitivities so important to Leach 8 and to his devotees are sidelined and to a great extent dismissed in favour of a spurious and often misguided conceptual approach... we might ask who will teach in twenty or thirty years hence what I and Mike and a dwindling number of other potters can do today? It’s very easy to think that we are fast approaching the buffers. I tend to think. .. ‘fear not’. I truly believe that fashion or fad is cyclical and things will evolve and revolve. Mike is essentially self taught, as was I... it is entirely possible given dedication and the spirit to forge ones own path and I am confident that those souls with the same single minded passion as Mike will do just that.

Phil Rogers, potter and writer, 2015

8 Bernard Leach CH CBE Often referred to as the father of the studio pottery movement in the west. Bernard Howell Leach, a gifted draughtsman, returned to England from Japan in 1920 to begin making pots in St Ives, Cornwall. His book ‘A Potters Book’ was hugely inspirational to many would-be potters. He died in 1979.

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268. Indented Vase Nuka over local clay slip 22 x 15 cm

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282. Small Oval Bottle Faceted. Local basalt black with Nuka 14 x 16 cm

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10. Vase Ribbed. Two ash glazes 44 x 24.5 cm

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21. Pilgrim Bottle Combed white slip, ash glaze 25.5 x 18 cm

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260. One Handled Bottle Vase River iron over granite 30 x 19 cm

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201. Vase Dimpled. New porphyry & ash glaze with Nuka top 27 x 23 cm

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181. Bottle Faceted. New ash glaze, river iron on shoulders 26 x 18 cm

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196. Large Jar Granite glaze with Nuka 52 x 38 cm

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243. Vase Paddled. Nuka 25 x 21 cm

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6. Vase Dimpled. Iron over high silica ash glaze 46 x 24.5 cm

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258. Teapot Ash glaze over local clay slip 20 x 12 cm

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276. Small Narrow Necked Vase Wax resist pattern. River iron dip 19 x 13 cm

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11. Squared Bottle Ribbed & incised. Ash glaze with Nuka on shoulders 43.5 x 22 cm

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290. Small Squared Vase River iron over granite. Finger trailed 19.5 x 13 cm

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200. Dish Nuka with finger trailing 9 x 35 cm

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151. Teabowl Impressed & incised. Dark granite glaze 10 x 11 cm

Biographical Notes Born 1943 in Sutton, Surrey.

Training 1957-1961

Bryanston School, Dorset. Studied pottery under Donald Potter (a student of Eric Gill).

1962-1965

Cambridge University. Studied Natural Sciences Tripos (Medicine). Honours Degree.

1966-1967

Hammersmith College of Art, London. One year post-graduate course in Ceramics.

Potteries 1968

Started first pottery in Edburton, Sussex. Two chambered wood and oil fired kiln. Ash glazed stoneware and porcelain.

1971

Moved pottery to larger premises at Woods Place Farmhouse, Whatlington, Battle, Sussex.

1975

Moved pottery to Cornwall. Built a wood-fired Korean climbing kiln. Used only local materials for the bricks. Started making glazes from local granites, clays, wood ashes, irons, ochres etc.

1979

Asked by Survival International and Oxfam to build a large climbing Korean kiln, similar to the one built in Cornwall, in the central jungles of Peru for the "Amuesha Indian Project" - a project aimed at keeping the indigenous people in their natural home. Spent 6 months there under the guidance of the American project leader, Connie Talbot.

1986

Moved pottery to Cumbria, concentrating on using local materials, granites,

1994

Pottery at Manor Farm, Cheddington, Beaminster, Dorset.

1999

Moved to present pottery at Dove Workshops, Somerset.

hornfels, andesites, irons, ashes etc. in the making of glazes.

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205. Store Jar Faceted. Local basalt black with Nuka 32 x 21 cm

Teaching Full-time 1981-1986 1981

Senior lecturer at Cumbria College of Art, Carlisle, Cumbria.

1982-86

Department Head at Cumbria College of Art, Carlisle, Cumbria.

Part-time Assignments 1972

Farnham College of Art, Surrey.

1972-74

Medway College of Art, Kent.

1974

Harrow College of Art, Middlesex.

1977-78

Royal College of Art, London.

1980

Derby College of Art, Derbyshire.

1986

Dundee College of Art, Dundee, Scotland.

1987

Manchester Polytechnic, Manchester.

1990

Preston Polytechnic, Preston, Lancashire.

1991

Addressed International Potters Camp at Aberystwyth, Wales - lecture entitled Selling Water by the River.

1997

Bolton Museum, main speaker at Landshut Functional Pottery Conference.

2000

Germany. Workshop at Landshut College for Ceramics.

2000

India. Workshop at Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry.

2008

Guest demonstrator, Irish Ceramics Festival, Kilkenny.

Selected Exhibitions 1972

Group exhibition, Craft Potters Shop, London.

1973

Group exhibition, Amalgam, London.

1978

Solo exhibition, Camelford Museum, Cornwall.

1979

Wood Fired Pottery by Mike Dodd, Craftworks, Guildford.

1987

The Leach Tradition - A Creative Force, Craft Potters Shop, London.

1988

Nine Potters, Paul Rice Gallery, London.

Mike Dodd, Amalgam, London (solo).

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254. Squared Dish Incised grass design. Peat clay glaze, iron rim 4.5 x 25.5 cm

1989

Out of the Earth, Craft Potters Shop, London.

1990

Mike Dodd, Amalgam, London (solo).

1992

Mike Dodd and John Jelfs, Chestnut Gallery, Bourton-on-the-water.

1993

Group exhibition, Espace La Main, Brussels.

Solo exhibition, Beaux Arts, Bath.

Form & Function, Contemporary Applied Arts, London.

1994

Mike Dodd - Ash-glazed Pots, Vincent Gallery, Exeter.

1995

New Ceramics - Mike Dodd and Phil Rogers, Oxford Gallery, Oxford.

1996

Bettles Gallery, Ringwood.

1997

Mike Dodd - Recent Pots, Amalgam, London.

1998

Bettles Gallery, Ringwood.

Mike Dodd - New Pots, Amalgam, London (solo).

Bough and Line Gallery, Bath.

1999

Ombersley Gallery, Ombersley.

Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.

2001

Bettles Gallery, Ringwood.

2002

Paddon & Paddon, East Sussex.

2003

Harlequin Gallery, London.

Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.

Oakwood Gallery, Nottinghamshire.

2004

Dove Workshops, Somerset.

2005

Bettles Gallery, Ringwood.

Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.

2006

Paddon & Paddon, East Sussex.

2007

Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland.

2007

Harlequin Gallery, London.

2008

Alpha House Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset.

2008

Oakwood Gallery, Nottinghamshire.

2009

Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland.

2011

Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland.

2013

The Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan.

2014

Leach Pottery, St. Ives, Cornwall.

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91. Yunomi

117. Yunomi

Porcelain. Inscribed grass design. Dark granite glaze 10 x 8 cm

Brushed & vertical trailed white slip.

Porphyry & ash glaze 10 x 8 cm 100. Yunomi Dark granite & river iron over broken slip 10 x 8 cm

74. Yunomi Wax resist pattern. Local kaki glaze 10 x 8 cm

Collections Victoria and Albert Museum, London British Crafts Council Collection, London Bath Study Centre, Bath Cleveland Craft Collection Ulster Museum, Belfast

Articles Articles by Mike Dodd: In Deference of Tradition, Pottery Quarterly, 1974 (invited to a discussion with Bernard Leach in St. Ives, on the strength of this article) Vol. 11, No. 41.

Confused Ramblings, Artist's Newsletter, 1982.

Letter from Peru, Oxapampa Project, Ceramic Review, 1983.

Makers or Breakers, Artist's Newsletter, March 1984.

Running a Vocational Course, Real Pottery (formerly Pottery Quarterly) 1986.

Healthy Roots, Artist's Newsletter, June 1987.

An American Experience, Artist's Newsletter, January 1993.

Function and Dysfunction, Ceramics: Art and Perception, 1998.

Trembling on the Edge, article on Patrick Sargent, Ceramic Review, May/June 1999.

Other Articles: Tim Proud article on Mike Dodd - Unambiguous Potter, Ceramic Review, Sept/Oct 1987.

Mike Dodd by Tanya Harrod in Ceramics Monthly, January 1991.

Eileen Lewenstein, Review of China Clay: The Eastern Tradition in British Studio Pottery, Crafts, Sept/Oct 1991.

An Interview with Mike Dodd, Studio Pottery, April/May 1994.

My Time at Cambridge, CAM, 1997.

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front cover: 280. Small Oval Bottle Broken slip. Peat clay glaze & Nuka 15.5 x 18 cm

197. Large Dish Local basalt black with Nuka 10 x 41 cm

Goldmark Gallery Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ + 44 (0)1572 821424 Text: © Phil Rogers 2015 Pottery photographs: © Vicki Uttley Portraits: © Jay Goldmark Design: Goldmark/Uttley/Porter ISBN 978-1-909167-25-4 goldmarkart.com

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