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Rumours of my Incarceration are Greatly Exaggerated.

Sorry, I am at it again.  This time poor old Mark Twain is getting misquoted but not without just cause if you ask me.  You see I have been out and about collecting mud again, this time in a torrential rainstorm, and the residents of a small, respectable town in Devon are probably expressing grave concerns!

This all started because I have been invited to be the featured artist in an exhibition called Escape by The Hybrid Gallery in Honiton this summer.  I am excited by this opportunity and thought it would be sensible to begin my making by making a visit to see the space.

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We lay like sardines in the back of the car

I remember Honiton.  We used to have to drive through it on our way to visit grandparents in Torquay.  Then we lay sardine fashion in the back of our Morris Traveller estate, watching the lights and the telegraph poles swoop by on  seemingly endless journeys.  Now you flash past on the bypass with children firmly strapped into child seats.

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http://www.honitonpottery.co.uk/History.html

Then it was famous for lace and there was a pottery in the town employing quite a number of people making slipcast functional ware.  Now many of the shops are gift or good food orientated and there is a Pottery Café on the site of the old pottery which hosts parties where you can decorate pre-fired wares whilst sipping smoothies and tucking into a panini.

 

It was years since I had visited the town and the rain on this particular day was  not at all conducive to sight seeing but Honiton is a true gem! Having had a bit of a look around I squelched my way to the public library where a quick search of the local history section revealed that the original pottery had, for many years, made use of a seam of clay running behind the workshop.  That was all the invitation I needed!

I was off – scampering up the main street and leaping puddles like the sure favorite in the National.  Lo and behold the house beside the pottery was having building work done and so, swathed in my sodden jacket and dripping with rain clutching trowel and zip lock bags in my damp, little hand, I knocked at the door.  Just then a young lad came round the corner of the house.  His expression on hearing my request was one of mild shock and incredulity but he agreed to my request and so, before he could call for men with straight jackets, I was down on my knees.  Three sandwich bags later (and, some would say, several short of a picnic) I was back at the car with my trophies and ready to start making.

 

Who Am I?

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to take part in a workshop organised by the  Design Factory  providing advice on writing about your art.  The session was run by Jane Adams from the Royal Literary Fund. 

We began by talking about our work.  We had about five minutes each, during which the other members of the group made notes on what we had said.  It is extraordinary how your attitude changes when you are talking to real people.  Suddenly we each began to say the things that the rest of the group seemed interested to hear.  Our description of our work practice changed significantly, well mine did for certain.  Instead of spilling out some ‘arty-speak’ notion of what I do I actually began to talk like a proper human being and to try and make what I said informative and interesting instead of merely talking through the top of my head.

Step two was to feed back to the speaker about what they had said and to try and distil what they had talked about into just the key points.  Next we split into pairs and, using the notes that we and the others had made, we wrote 4 sentences about our partners work.

Here I was exceptionally fortunate to be paired with Liz Cooper.  It turns out that she is a bit of a wordsmith!  Given the fact that she is a freelance curator this is no bad thing but, for me, it proved to be a very good thing indeed!  This is what she wrote about me:  I love it and will use it almost unadulterated as my Artist’s Profile from henceforth!

  • Geology is at the core of Bridget Macklin’s ceramics: she mixes in other materials, then scrapes back to reveal fantastic and colourful strata.
    Bridget loves porcelain and says, “When my hands are contact with it, I just can’t stop working with it.”
    She delights in repeated refining of her pieces, revelling in the challenge of taking risks with her materials.
    Bridget strives to make lustrous, delicious pieces that only reveal their full natures and hidden treats on close inspection.

Now I ask you, What is not to like?

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What is not to like?