現代藝術【陶藝創作!ceramic】李春和器品網站地圖!ceramics originality {earthenLee.com} sitemap 【道家老莊思想!Tao】李春和其光!Lao-tzu/Chuang-tzu in earth {earthenLee.com}
李春和【茶碗!tea-bowls】簡約素雅文人風!simplicity literati {earthenLee.com}
{earthenLee teabowls glazes & ceramics} To appreciate Earthen Lee's pottery works does not require any specialized pottery knowledge, however, you can feel a temperament, which is what he wants to convey to us by means of his works. Those who have seen Mr. Lee's celadon wares are able to perceive his devotion, which is the essence that exudes the vitality of his pottery crockery, indeed. For the first time I met Mr. Lee, he seemed to be a very rustic and plain person by my instinct, and it's hard to associate his artworks with his outward look. I had ever doubted myself, 'is he really the ceramicist for all these pottery wares?', 'what on earth is this rugged and unconstrained man in front of me?', and 'what state of intention does Master Lee have in mind to produce his works?'. I would like to know how he is able to make me feel such a subtle sensibility from his artworks!
Getting to know Master Lee better, I gradually found him to be a very interesting person. First of all, young Lee grew up in a Southern County of Taiwan, Chia-Yi, where he frequently groped for eels, clutched loaches, fished frogs, caught crickets, picked up rice spikes in the fields, searched and collected sweet potatoes under the ground with elder children of the same village, in addition, accompanied his grandma to grope for water chestnuts on the bottom of ponds in the chilled water temperature by 5℃. Not like other students, young Lee went to school with his satchel placing a bird's nest with newly hatched baby birds, instead of textbooks; besides, found worms to feed those baby birds in his hurry during the intervals between classes while his classmates were chasing and fighting noisily. Moreover, without caring about late arrival at school, young Lee always forgot to go to school owing to his concentration on fishing, so as to make his mother look for him in anger with a stick. All these memories in Mr. Lee's younger days still can be recalled in his mouth.
Young Lee's abundant experience in intimating with nature must have great influence on his subsequent pottery creation, I think. Mr. Lee constantly mentioned that he was lucky to have spent time in nature in his childhood, but then everyone are attracted by televisions, children no longer wander in the arms of nature and things changed. With the effect of industrialization on social capital, Mr. Lee got into another stage of his life. Mr. Lee had joined in Chung-Hwa Telecom before serving in the army; in view of the interests in pottery cultivation by a friend, he started to dabble at pottery after he was demobilize. At the very beginning, Mr. Lee had never considered entering upon a pottery career; it's still at the exploring stage to him. He started to learn technical skills through trial and error after taking a class about glaze compound, and it has been more than twenty years ever since then. While Taiwan pottery was in smash hit and a large amount of people started to run pottery business, Mr. Lee still devoted himself to the glaze research.
Without possessing any kiln when Mr. Lee learnt technical skills of glazing at the initial stage, he had to take buses from Yong-He to his friend's studio in Yang-Ming Mountain after work, writing glazing formula, mixing glaze compounds, firing, and collating fired glaze samples day after day; and then went back to Yong-He to report for duty in early morning of the next day. During the time period he spent in learning glazing technical skills, Mr. Lee invested all his energy in the study of the glaze, excepting the time at work. The research in glazing for pottery works is a lonely and solitary endeavor; however, Mr. Lee would repeatedly deliberate possible ways to straighten out choke points he encountered, in addition, put his new ideas into further actions over and over again. One happening shows his working attitude toward glazing research is that he ever puzzled over more than three months just in pursuit of glazing essence and the breakthrough in one material
restriction; this kind of attitude represents his personality that he never gives up! There are some key indexes to examine and appreciate Mr. Lee's pottery works, such as hues, essence, depth, and temperament; all these indexes are particularly what he is fastidious about during the process of firing glaze samples. The most difficult part during glaze samples filing is asking yourself what you really want to represent to people, said Mr. Lee. He frequently asks himself the same question. Once Mr. Lee would like to try some glaze samples with the simple and unadorned feeling, by accident that some glazed samples showed essence like peafowl feathers during his successive experiments. Such adventitious encounters brought him some ideas to explore the glaze in the hues of peafowl feathers. Therefore, he sought for a real feather and carefully observed the variations in color and luster of the peafowl feather from various
angles. He found that the feather displays a glimmer of silver color from one angle, and turns from turquoise to black from another angle, whereas its green shade turns from lighter to darker; moreover, the fringe of a peafowl feather has a tinge of purple. All these conclusions become the standards for Mr. Lee to examine the glaze in the hues of peafowl feathers. When Mr. Lee commenced to produce celadon wares, he demanded to make something having jade-like texture with a serene but vivid temperament. To acquaint himself with the level of his celadon wares in glaze color after firing glazed samples for a while, Mr. Lee even took his own glaze samples to National Palace Museum contrasting with glaze colors of celadon wares by the Ru Kiln during the Song Dynasty under the same lighting. The result of the comparison is more than satisfied for him to move on.
angles. He found that the feather displays a glimmer of silver color from one angle, and turns from turquoise to black from another angle, whereas its green shade turns from lighter to darker; moreover, the fringe of a peafowl feather has a tinge of purple. All these conclusions become the standards for Mr. Lee to examine the glaze in the hues of peafowl feathers. When Mr. Lee commenced to produce celadon wares, he demanded to make something having jade-like texture with a serene but vivid temperament. To acquaint himself with the level of his celadon wares in glaze color after firing glazed samples for a while, Mr. Lee even took his own glaze samples to National Palace Museum contrasting with glaze colors of celadon wares by the Ru Kiln during the Song Dynasty under the same lighting. The result of the comparison is more than satisfied for him to move on.
In recent years, Mr. Lee put himself to work on the applications of his glaze researches to utensils. Usually he favors simplified shapes, which, I suppose to be related to his plain and native characteristics. For years, Mr. Lee takes tea-bowls as the main object of his pottery works all along. He explained, 'A simple-shaped object leaves room for glazes to dance, so that glazes speak for the strength of the object. That is so called strength and beauty. ' Similar to dress designing that garments of simplest form and pattern always manifest the dresser's character the most; namely, less is more, and more is less. Lately, Mr. Lee also copes with glazing paint by means of 'station glaze', which is a glazing paint technique that would prevent major glazes from being blended together. Owing to the purpose, Mr. Lee repeatedly changes glazes and fires glaze samples
time after time; he not only changes glaze temperament, but also changes glazes coating enameling. Up to now, Mr. Lee does not want to limit his own works to a certain glazing style, so that his artworks are not likely to be recognized at a glance; he considers that various glazes have distinctive temperaments, which differ from diversified standards. In addition, it is quite often that he criticizes his own works and demolishes his own standpoints; as a matter of course, he would be excited by freshly fired glaze works at the very beginning and then feels that all works are not up to his standard just in a very short time. Mr. Lee never talks about profound glaze theories after many years of firing glazes; however, people would feel the sensibility of Mr. Lee to glazes. Mr. Lee's idiosyncrasy, I suppose, should be formed during his childhood lived with and learnt from the nature.
Moreover, the wisdom of life embodied from Lao-tze and Chuang-tze that reflects on Mr. Lee, is also significant spiritual nourishment to his artistic creation. To an art pottery worker, his creations are the embodiment of life substance; however, it is not the whole inner world of the worker. I found from Mr. Lee's artworks that there is his exclusive essence and a particular thoughtfulness of his own. 'Till now, I have not built my own style of creation works; all these studies and researches to me are merely a process. I would like my artworks to reach the realm of back-to-nature, but it is not easy, it is still a long way to go excepting unceasing trials', said Mr. Lee. You would have different feelings of viewing Mr. Lee's artworks at different period of time. The reason is because that he is a person who surmounts himself at any time; and you, shall find his growth in sight.
{李春和茶碗釉色與當代陶藝創作： 【黑釉藥茶碗!tea-bowl】以長期試釉的基礎， 李春和內化老莊哲學及西方藝術， 吐納在鬥茶碗和陶藝創作上{earthenLee.com}。 看李春和的陶藝作品，其實不需要專業的知識背景， 而你所感受到的氣氛，就是他想藉由作品傳達的氣質。 看過李老師青瓷的人，都能體會到作者的用心。是的， 就是用心讓他的陶器散發出生命的活力。 初次見到李老師，直覺上是一個很土的人， 看他的外表，實在無法和這樣的作品聯想在一起， 這真的是作者嗎？ 我的心中起了個大問號。 眼前這個粗線條的人，到底是怎樣的人？ 他到底以什麼樣的心思來創作？而能讓我從他的作品中， 感受到一種細膩的情愫，我很想知道！ 與李老師接觸久了，我漸漸地了解這個人： 他生長於嘉義，小時候跟著同村的大孩子摸鱔魚、捉泥鰍、 釣青蛙、捉蟋蟀、拾稻穗、撿蕃薯， 和阿嬤在攝氏五度的池子摸掉入池底的菱角。 別人上學書包裡放課本，他的包包裝的竟是鳥巢， 裡面還有剛孵化的小鳥呢！
下課時間當同學們正在追逐打鬧，玩得不亦樂乎時， 他卻趕著去捉小蟲來餵鳥兒。別人上學是怕遲到， 他卻能釣魚釣到忘了上課，還讓媽媽拿著棍子來找人。 這些幼時的回憶，迄今他還常常掛在嘴邊。我想， 這些和大自然親近的經驗， 對於李老師日後的陶藝創作應該有很大的影響。李老師常說， 他很慶幸還能在大自然中度過童年，只是電視一出來後， 每個人都躲在屋子裡看電視，小孩子不再和大自然玩在一起， 很多事物也都變了！ 隨著社會工業化，李老師進入人生的另一個階段。 當兵前他進入中華電信服務，退伍後因朋友玩陶而開始接觸陶。 李老師說他開始玩陶時，也沒有想到把陶藝當成事業， 反正就這樣做下去。初期都還在摸索的階段， 上過一期釉藥課後，他開始試釉，這一試，至今二十多年了。 在他開始試釉時，正值台灣陶最風行的年代， 當很多人開始經營陶藝時，李老師卻仍埋首在釉藥的研發工作上。
剛開始試釉時，李老師還沒有燒窯設備， 他每天下班後從永和搭公車上陽明山朋友的工作室： 寫配方、配釉、燒窯、整理試片，隔天一早再搭公車回永和上班， 下班後再上陽明山。那段日子裡，李老師每天除了上班， 其他的時間、精力都投入釉藥的研究。研究的路是孤單的， 有時碰到瓶頸，他會反覆思考，嘗試各種可能的解決辦法； 當方法行不通時，再想、再試。他曾經為了追求釉水的質感， 突破材料的限制，前後苦思了三個多月， 這就是他看待釉藥研發工作的態度。 欣賞李老師陶藝作品時，有幾個重要的座標：色澤、質感、 深度、氣質，這些都是他在試釉時特別考究的地方。他說， 試釉最難的就是你要的是什麼？這也是他經常問自己的問題。 有一陣子李老師想嘗試具拙感的釉， 試驗當中有些試片卻試出孔雀羽毛的質感， 這種奇遇反倒觸發他朝孔雀羽色釉發展的念頭。 他找來真的羽毛，仔細觀察孔雀毛在不同角度的色澤變化： 從某個角度看，羽毛會泛著銀光；某個角度，藍綠色又會變黑色， 綠色則會由淺變深；由另一個角度看，孔雀羽毛邊緣會略帶紫色。 這些觀察的結果，就是李老師用來檢驗孔雀釉是否成熟的標準。
當李老師開始試青瓷時，他想要釉能像玉一般的溫潤， 沉穩卻又帶有活力的氣質。試釉一陣子之後， 為了想了解自己青瓷釉的水準，他帶著試片到故宮， 在相同的燈光下比對宋代汝窯青瓷器的釉色， 比對的結果讓他更有信心地繼續試釉。 近年來，李老師開始嘗試將釉藥研究的成果用在器物上。 他通常偏愛簡單的器型，我以為這和他素樸的個人特質有關。 多年來，李老師一直以茶碗作為他作陶的主軸，他說： 造型簡潔的器型，能把空間完全留給釉色發揮；釉色的感覺， 能展現器物的力道，這就是力與美。就像服裝設計一樣， 通常剪裁簡單的衣裳，最能展現穿者的氣質，正所謂少就是多， 多就是少Less is More, More is Less 。
最近李老師也以屯釉的方式來處理釉畫， 他常常會因為處理技法上的需求，而反覆改釉、試釉：他常常在變， 變化釉的氣質，改變上釉的方式。到目前， 他的釉色沒有一貫的風格，不會讓人家一眼就認出是李春和的釉， 這是因為他對不同氣質的釉色有不同的標準，並且又常常批判自己、 推翻自己的看法：通常有很多情況是，釉色剛燒出來時， 他會覺得很興奮，可是一陣子就又看不上眼了。 李老師試釉這麼多年，他不會談論很高深的釉藥理論， 但是你可以感受到他對釉色的敏銳度，這種特質， 應該是童年在大自然中生活所養成的。除了從大自然學習外， 李老師從老莊思想中體現的生命智慧， 也是他在創作時很重要的精神養分。
對一個陶藝工作者來說，作品是傳達生命內涵的具象表現， 但這並不等於他內心世界的全部。在李老師的作品中， 我體現到屬於他個人的道，一種他特有的味。他說：在陶藝方面， 我到現在還沒有建立個人的風格，目前這些對我都只是過程； 我想要提昇到樸拙的境界，除了不斷嘗試外，還需要時間。 不同的時期去看李老師的作品，都會有不同的感覺； 他是隨時在突破自己的人，而你，能看得到他的成長。
【內斂含藏茶碗!inconspicuous tenmoku tea-bowls】王邦雄話春和!his spirit acted as he willed in teabowls {earthenLee.com}
【茶碗!teabowls】李春和生命力!vitality of earthen tea-bowls {earthenLee.com}