We’re never done.
We will never arrive.
The human lifespan is simply not long enough to master anything.
As artists, even if we have reached a place where we are proficient, sought-after, comfortable in the level of success we’ve reached, we’re never done finding skills we can improve, new things we want to try, a longing to be even better. My friend Ezra is a damn fine potter. He has an eye for harmonious forms and has worked hard over years to be able to create those forms in clay. His large, generous pieces have a musicality that lead your eye from the bottom to the very top in one smooth motion. His glazing often is a conversation between the brassy gloss and the soft mattes, and where the glazes meet is pure crystalline conversation. I am myself a potter and so can truly appreciate his skill in this messy medium, but his pieces are standalone beauties that will command any space you choose to display them.
Raised just north of New York City, Ezra first encountered clay when he needed to fill an elective requirement in college. He took a hand-building class and, while he enjoyed the feel of clay and the range in expression it afforded, his attention was drawn to the adjacent room where there was a wheel-throwing class happening. Though the wheel class was technically reserved only for art students, he managed to get into the class the following semester, and that changed his life. The teacher was a very capable potter who gave zra the basic skills to build on. He also introduced Ezra to the work of Tom Coleman, a well known American potter whose journey into pottery was documented in John Nance’s book The Mud-Pie Dilemma. Ezra devoured the book, frequently falling asleep with it on his chest. He was hooked for life.
Ezra learned that Tom Coleman was opening a community studio in Las Vegas. So after graduation Ezra moved to Nevada to study with Tom, honing his skills and soaking up everything he could. Ezra pushed himself and became a good potter, but health concerns caused him to decide to keep pottery as a part-time passion rather than a career. He became a clinical therapist and loves his work. But pottery is still his passion.
“There’s a healthy addictive quality to pottery,” said Ezra as we wandered through his studio recently. His home is filled with gorgeous pots from the acclaimed potters he’s studied with. He can hold forth on each one, why it moves him, the refinement of technique. Over the last four years he has studied with Steven Hill, Danny Meisinger and Adam Field. Ezra takes workshops like other people take vacations. In March Ezra will workshop with Tom Coleman, as he did over 30 years ago.
Ezra describes himself as a student of throwing. “Throwing gives you the ability to deliver the form. Without the technique you’re not going to be able to get nice, refined form.” While he does throw mugs and plates, his go-to form is larger, decorative pieces. At present he is working out of inspiration from Spanish potter Jose Mariscal, who makes needle-topped pots (bottles) with crystalline glazes. Jose works with breathtaking speed and efficiency coupled with an impeccable sense of form. While Ezra has never met Jose, Ezra studies videos of Jose throwing, trying to glean insights into his remarkable skills. How fast you can throw isn’t a contest, but reaching that level of skill that you can get where you are aiming so directly is strongly related to aesthetic outcomes and possibilities. Watching that kind of skill can put a fire in the belly of an artist. So Ezra has been producing some lovely bottles, pushing himself, refining his technique with each one.
But there is so much more to pottery. Ezra has also been making sectional pots, where the potter makes two or more pieces on the wheel and, measuring carefully, stacks them to create a single, larger piece. This kind of throwing brings its own challenges, but it’s just more to explore and learn. Glazing is also a world in itself. How does this glaze look on this specific clay body? How does it interact with other glazes? How does it look when it is brushed on? Sprayed on? Dipped? As in any artistic medium, there is always more to explore and learn. You never really ‘arrive.’ I will say, though, that Ezra, over decades of striving, has come to a place where he delivers beautiful work. He came to it with an eye for harmonious form, and has made it his lifework to develop the technique to articulate this through the medium of clay.
You’ll find Ezra’s work at Van Gogh’s Ear on Whiskey Row, The Raku Gallery in Jerome, ezrapottery.com and on Instagram @ezrapottery.
