17 Weeks and Counting

The years are starting to fly by and we are up to 1990.  The OPA and Ceramic Showcase continued to experience growing pains throughout the 90's.  An organization that started out as a small potters cooperative continued to grow and with growth came change.  Although necessary, change was not always well received.  In the end, members came together and realized that no matter how big the organization got, they were still that small cooperative - holding true to the values and ideals that were set forth by the founding members.

In 1990, the Best in Show was awarded to Michael Scrivens.  Michael provided a bit of insight into how he found himself to be a potter.  What he has written is so humble and I hadn't remembered his piece until I uploaded it for this post.  The image that is shown and the way Michael describes the process makes it seem so ordinary but all you have to do is lay eyes on this piece and it is anything but.

Here's what Michael has to say:

"I was introduced to pottery in high school around 1969 and bought my first wheel in 1970 and worked in the basement of my parents home.  I studied some ceramics in college at both Mt. Hood Community College and the University of Oregon - GO DUCKS!

Best in Show 1990
Michael Scrivens

For many years to come I worked primarily with Cone 6 white clay with a "dunk & brush" glaze technique.  In 1989 I decided to do a complete change over and began using a beautiful terra cotta clay body.  I was also developing a technique of spraying and masking glazes and underglazes.  The resulting patterns were at times unpredictable and sometimes images would start to appear.  One of these images was the image of a fish.  The colorful fish image on a black background was chosen as Best of Show for the 1990 Ceramic Showcase as well as Best of Show 1990 Artquake.

Today, now 22 years later, with some breaks away from my pottery career, I'm still using the same beautiful terra cotta clay body and the glazing techniques with my pottery.  I've shifted my focus lately to include a fairly new line of high relief tiles, which have been well received.