Writing about ceramics is a way to bridge what we make and the effect that making has on us. My first book, Salt Glazed Ceramics (Watson-Guptill, 1977), challenged me to articulate my passion for that process by researching, organizing, and sharing information with others at a time when there was little or nothing to read on the subject. Wood-Fired Stoneware and Porcelain (Chilton, 1995) answered a similar need. While both books are now out of print and available through book-dealers on the internet (please click on the links above), they were my contribution to the powerful urge many writers have to enlarge our understanding of what we do, while laying the groundwork for better books in the future.
My articles and poems are written from a more personal perspective, and perhaps are the equivalent of drawings that fill the sketchbooks of so many potters and ceramic artists. While they were developing their 2-d skills, I was grading papers as an English teacher, and, in effect, teaching myself to write.
“I feel extremely fortunate to have discovered a field of work that offers ample opportunities for enticing and stimulating our curiosity about materials and processes so we can use them to expressive and aesthetic ends.” That quotation is something I can tell you. What I write is my way of showing you what I mean.
jacktroy.net 