james marshall
santa Fe, new mexico, usa
James Marshall working on Interfusion #509 in his studio, Santa Fe, New Mexico
James Marshall, Black #502, 2018. Glazed ceramic, 32 x 36.5 x 7.5 inches
James Marshall, Black #501, 2018. Glazed ceramic, 26 x 34 x 11 inches
James Marshall, Black Interfusion installation at Peters Projects, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2018
How is your work changing because of what’s happening right now? The work is always changing, sometimes in small steps of successive approximation and sometimes in giant steps, as in dreaming Coltrane. No one knows anything about what their work will be like a year from now. Past time is out of reach, present time is out of reach, and future time is out of reach. Therefore, how could one possibly know what one’s work will be like—even if the world is still here a year from now? Is knowing really that important? Perhaps not knowing is more important.
What the world is going through: It’s not what the world is going through. It’s what the world is making us go through—essentially, asking us as a species if will we wake up or not.
The new normal: Things will not go back to normal simply because things never were normal. The perception of normal is a convenient human invention to somehow make things seem right, to obscure the inherent lack of control we all have, to make us feel temporarily comfortable, like crossing an empty street.
Comfort: Genuine truth as to who you are will dissolve any doubts about what you are doing. Each one of us has a path. Just simply walking the path is enough. If you find that in a year you do not have enough time to make your work because you might be having to plant a garden to feed your family, well, then you become a gardener. That too is your path. A rice bowl is nothing at all until it is filled with rice and the bowl is held in the hand and the rice eaten. Then it becomes a bowl.
The Great Pause: Freedom manifests through space: a quiet, empty, outside-of-time kind of space. Like the space between the stars: vast and unfathomable. This gives one’s creative mind the time and space to manifest the work.
On Virtual Teaching of Ceramics: The virtual teaching of art/clay is a daunting task. Like reaching out in your sleep for that pillow that doesn’t exist. Clay is a primal medium, and perhaps would be ideal to offer to the world via the internet. If virtual art-making and learning experiences result in more people creating, then they might bring about positive change. Is this not what is asked of us right now?
during the lockdown, JAMES MARSHALL has been preparing for a solo show at PETERS PROJECTS, SANTA FE, in May 2021, and—with his wife TANA and their dogs—planting a large vegetable garden.
James Marshall, Which Mountain is the Holy One? from The Invisible Mystery, 2020. Unfired white earthenware slip. 2 ½ x 18 x 18 inches. “The Invisible Mystery Series is a reflection upon our traveling through unknown mountains without a compass or water bottle. Still moist and a finished work just as it is. If I were to exhibit it, it might be mounted on a wall or mounted horizontally and allowed to dry. I plan to make a new piece every week or two weeks. Working with liquid slip on a plaster wedging slab has given me some ideas for photographing and maybe firing these pieces. Not sure if they would make it through the firing. But it’s a different, much looser exploration with clay that I am enjoying and intrigued by. “