When Bad Things Happen to Good Pots
A Ceramics Exhibit at the Hyde Park Art Center
May 4-May 25
Curated by Mary Rose Shaughnessy

Lids that won't come off;
glaze that has bubbled or crawled or stuck to the shelf; pieces that have warped, cracked, broken off--
This exhibit looks at some of the bad things that have happened to some of our good pots.
In life good people have to pick up the pieces and make something out of diminished expectations.
They cannot simply throw away a bad result; they may simply have to work
with a situation-or relationship or person-- that disappointed them.

Potters, however, may throw away their disappointments,
but sometimes they hang onto them.
Maybe they love the shape too much and are unwilling to thow it away.
Or they may never have one that shape so well.
Even with the cracked bottom it looks good from the outside.
With the lid on, no one can see the crack.
Maybe they can reglaze it to deepen the color.
Maybe they grow to love it, in spite of its defect,
even as people may love the person who disappoints them.
There is a sort of lingering love for that defective pot.
Other pots they can give away or sell, but this one will never leave home.

		Kim Nikolin	Malka Shalhav
My Ring Flask	Kim Nikolin	"Crack Pots"
With Kyoko, Kim, Greg and Michelle at the opening.		Vladimir Donchik	Vladimir Donchik
My cracked head	Kyoko Magari-Ball	Three of my teapots
My casserole	My ring jug	Kyoko Magari-Ball	Jan Boden
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