Large Vase, 1993

Jim Malone

earthenware

12.5" H x 7" W x 7" D

This vase by Jim Malone embodies the spirit of the Arts & Crafts Movement triumphed by Bernard Leach -- simple and imbued with the spirit of the artist. It is perfect the person looking for artwork that evokes strength and beauty. The vase is grounded and stable in color, design, and form, presenting earth tone and a sand-like texture that complement the curving shapes and elongated form. Whether it is standing alone or containing flowers and grasses, the vase will be sure to add a sense of that elusive balance we're all looking for to your home or office.

Artist Statement

The means by which my pots are produced is at least as important as the end result. This is what gives the work its character, its soul. I would never, for example, choose to work on an electric wheel. My wheel is a very light Korean type kick wheel which demands sensitivity in use but in return allows a closer, more intimate contact with the material. It is more expressive, emphasizing the soft, sensual, and essentially feminine nature of clay. Pots are coaxed into being rather than forced and, somewhere within its hypnotic and silent rhythm pots are born, almost without notice. After more than forty years of working in this area, I was never interested in spreading wider, only digging deeper, undistracted by fashion or trends, in my endeavor to understand and express the beauty trough pottery form, my legacy will be the body of my work I leave behind. On this I will be judged.

Artist Biography

One of Britain's foremost potters, Jim Malone was born in Sheffield in 1946, just as the first generation of post war potters were beginning to absorb Bernard Leach's "A Potters Book," published six years before. In 1972 he was accepted into the foundation course at Camberwell School of Art where his ceramic tutor, Ian Godfrey, began to open his eyes to the craft. Ian led a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum to look at Korean pots and Malone was deeply impressed by the life and spirit of the work. From then on he began to look at what he described as the "taproot" - Korean, early Chinese, and medieval English pots in the London museums.

After receiving his degree, he was able to set up a studio in a remote barn at Llandegla on the Horseshoe Pass in Wales. There he built a gas kiln and started to produce. Years later he left Wales and took up a teaching position in Carlisle at Cumbria College of Art in 1982 alongside fellow potter, Mike Dodd. In 1984 Malone and his family found a cottage at Ainstable in the beautiful Eden Valley, a few miles southeast of Carlisle, where he made a new workshop and kiln in the generous space of the attached outbuilding.

Malone is a consummate craftsman, but the pots suggest that he is still amazed by his art, that it offers him surprises every day. This is surely why the work has a vitality and freshness rare in modern ceramics. Malone has been a full-time potter since he left teaching in 1990.

Donated by the Grainer Family.

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