Lee Horus Clark

PILLAR IGA VESSEL (2 views)
stoneware
6 day anagama firing, natural ash glaze
fired in New Brunswick using mostly pine
33 in. tall x 5 in. at widest
$2,000

 

 

 

 

 

IGA VASE (3 views)
porcelain (#69)
5 day anagama firing, buried in coals
natural ash and salt glaze and texture
fired in New Brunswick
7.25 in.x 5.5 in.
$300

 

 

 

 

 

LONG NECKED VASE (2 views) (#31)
stoneware, natural ash glaze
8 day anagama fired
7 in. tall x 3.5 in. at widest
$170

 

 


VASE
porcelain (#37)
10 days anagama firing using all white pine
natural ash glaze
7 in. tall x 4 in. at widest
$350





 

 

WHISKEY CUPS
or tea cups, or gin and tonic cups or espresso cups...
porcelain
10 days anagama firing using all white pine
natural ash glaze
assorted sizes approx. 3 in. tall x 4 in. at widest
$40 - $60 each

 

 



BOTTLE (2 views) (#50)
natural ash glaze
7 day anagama firing, natural ash glaze
fired in New Brunswick using mostly tamarack and hemlock
8 in. tall x 4 in. at widest
$200

 

 

ROUND VASE
porcelain (#45)
natural ash glaze
6 day anagama firing, natural ash glaze
fired in New Brunswick using pine
5.5 in. tall x 3.5 in. at widest
$110

 

 

VASE
porcelain (#35)
natural ash glaze
10 day anagama firing, natural ash glaze
fired in New Brunswick using pine
5.5 in. tall x 2.75 in. at widest
$140

 

FLAT BOTTOMED VASE
porcelain (#103)
natural ash glaze
6 day anagama firing, natural ash glaze
fired in New Brunswick using pine
5 in. tall x 5 in. at widest
$140

 

 

 


IGA TSUBO
anagama firing for 5 days in firebox
tamarack for fuel
coiled and thrown on the kickwheel
19.5 in. tall x 16 in. at widest
$2,500



 

 

DICHOTOMY OF BEING 2 (3 views)
iga vase, natural ash glaze
5 day anagama firing
28 in. tall x 7.5 in. at widest
$1,200

 

 


 

 

DICHOTOMY OF BEING 1 (2 views)
iga vase, natural ash glaze
5 day anagama firing
17.5 in. tall x 4.5 in. at widest
$700

 

 


HEMISPHERES
stoneware
multi-fired, natural ash and a some salt glaze
13 in. tall x 12 in. wide
$500

FLOATING VESSEL (2 views)
multi clay 6 day anagama fired
natural ash and iron ore bearing glaze
9.5 in. tall x 13 in. diameter
$450

 

Statement:

We, Lee and Yolande, live, love and work together, with the help of our little buddha-boy Horus, in rural New Brunswick. We divide our time between our church/studio in Florenceville-Bristol and our kilns and solar-powered home in the backwoods. Lee is one of North America's most talented woodfiring potters and kiln builders, and has been working as a professional artist/sculptor for over ten years. Yolande apprenticed with Lee for three years and currently pursues ceramic art, painting and writing.

Woodfiring is our path and our passion; it is a spiritual calling and the focus of our life. Described by collectors as the jewels of ceramic art, woodfired pottery is the most complex, difficult, ancient, profound, durable, and magical way to fire clay. The anagama (tube chamber) was developed in Korea and introduced to Japan in the fifth century, remaining a huge influence on Japanese ceramic art for many centuries. The Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi (beauty in the imperfections of nature) is strongly tied to woodfired ceramics, the ritual of Japanese tea ceremony and Zen Buddhism. These practices are associated with the revival of the anagama in Japanese culture, and the introduction of this firing method to the west. In North America, the anagama has only been in use for the past thirty to forty years.

In 1999 Lee traveled to Japan for the first time which led to his meeting and firing with Shiho Kanzaki, the Shigaraki-based Japanese master of anagama. Like Kanzaki, our primary interest lies in firing with no applied chemical glaze, and instead maintaining enough heat in our kiln to achieve spontaneously, through the alchemical interactions between clay, wood and fire, a natural ash glaze dripping with constellations of brilliant colour. Our kiln, the 27 foot long Little River Anagama (the first incarnation of which Lee built in 1998, based on Kanzaki's design) is usually fired twice a year. It takes us several months to make enough work to fill the kiln, several weeks to acquire, cut and split the many cords of sustainably harvested wood that we burn, and several days to pack the kiln with work placed precisely on the kiln shelves. We fire for between 8-11 days, during which the fire must be stoked every 3-5 minutes, 24 hours a day, for the entire 8-11 day duration. Over the course of this time, the ash from the wood burned is carried by the flames through the kiln, and lands on the many pieces. When the heat reaches 1300 degrees celcius, the wood-ash melts to create the entirely natural glaze.

Unique among most contemporary woodfiring ceramicists, we fire intuitively, without the use of cones or pyrometers, technology which, in our experience, detracts from the essential spontaneity of the process and from our deeper ability to understand the kiln's sensitivities and responses. In addition to the anagama, we also fire shino ware in our box-style wood kiln and woodfire raku. For us, firing is a family affair, a spiritual journey, and a profound ritual. It is humbling and joyful to push our bodies and the work of our hands to their utmost limit. With every stoke, the vessels and sculptures we make are bathed in light and purified by the intensity of the flames. Firing a wood-kiln is an extremely high risk endeavour, and each piece that we make and which survives the trial by fire, is utterly unique, and one-of-a kind. In a world over-full of mass-produced, disposable items, many see woodfiring as the antithesis of consumer irrelevancy, and as a philsophical and aesthetic balm for our age. In and of themselves, our works are beautiful, complex, non-hazardous (unlike most raku pottery), and suitable for use, both formally and day-to-day. We hope that your new cup (or vase) brings you happiness--that it makes sacred the pouring into, and the drinking from.



 

 

 

VASE (2 views) (#104)
twice fired (in New Brunswick), natural ash glaze
5 day anagama fired using tamarack and
6 day anagama fired using mostly pine
10.5 in. tall x 12 in. at widest
$500

 

 

FIREBOX VASE (3 views)
porcelain
6 day anagama firing, situated in the firebox, natural ash glaze
fired in New Brunswick using mostly pine
8.5 in. tall x 5 in. at widest
$275

 

 

READY
porcelain sculpture, electric cone 6 fired
10.5 in. tall x 4 in x 3 in.
$80

 

 

DESPAIR
porcelain sculpture, electric cone 6 fired
9.5 in. tall x 4 in. x 3 in.
$80

 

"ATMOSPHERE" ROUND VASE - STONEWARE
6 day anagama firing, natural ash glaze
fired in New Brunswick using mostly pine
22.5 in. tall x 16.5 in. at widest
$2,500

 


 

 

RINGED IGA VESSEL (2 views)
7 day anagama fired in the firebox,
partially buried in coals, from most intense (heat and activity) area of kiln
natural ash glaze and texture build-up around base
fired in New Brunswick using hemlock and tamarack
25.5 in. tall x 13.5 in. widest
$5,000

 

 

Lee demonstrating his technique in the gallery during July 2007 Culture Crawl.

LEE WAS CHOSEN TO AUTHOR AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE IRISH-BASED INTERNATIONAL WOOD-FIRED CERAMICS JOURNAL "THE LOG BOOK"

LEE DEMONSTRATING KICKWHEEL AND COIL CONSTRUCTION AT NB CRAFT SALE LABOUR DAY WEEKEND 2006

Lee Horus Clark was born in the year of the Dragon, 1976. In 1981 he was the founding member of “the danger club” local daredevils risking life and limb to alleviate the “country boredoms” and found clay in a stream. He had no idea of his future relationship with clay. Early in life Lee knew he wanted to be an artist; he contemplated a career in illustration and photography. In 1995 he found clay again, by mistake, at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, fell hopelessly in love and abandoned photography. He graduated from NBCCD in 1998 with a Diploma of Fine Craft majoring in Ceramics and the Award for Excellence in Clay.

Lee has been the recipient of a number of important travel and creation grants by the New Brunswick Arts Board and the New Brunswick Crafts Council, including being invited to participate in the 2001 International Workshop of Ceramic Arts in Tokoname, Japan . This 7 week long cultural and technical exchange with 14 participants from around the world included studio work, tours of kilns sites and firing an anagama twice and participating in an exhibition. Lee returned to Japan in 2003 where he assisted in a 10 day anagama firing for Shiho Kanzaki in Shigaraki, Japan. Kanzaki sensei is a world leading progressive traditional master in the art of the anagama. In 2004 Lee assisted with Kanzaki sensei again in an anagama firing in Pennsylvania. In the same year, Lee oversaw and participated in the construction of an anagama kiln in Arkansas in the style of Kanzaki's kiln of Shigaraki, Japan .

Lee's work has been shown in a number of exhibits since his graduation, he has given workshops around New Brunswick and in the USA and will be featured in a documentary by Montréal filmmaker Claude Gagnon. In October 2006 Lee was sponsored to attend an International wood fired conference at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, an excellent opportunity to learn and create with colleagues from around the world.

Lee has built his anagama kiln in the woods of New Brunswick and produces his masterful work with no power or running water. Woodfiring and throwing on a kick wheel has changed the way he thinks of pottery and has created a legend in the making.

 

THE ANAGAMA KILN IN SIMONDS, NB -
LOOKING FROM THE BACK


THE KILN - VIEW FROM THE FRONT


QUERCY GOLLSE - GETTING READY TO CHECK THE FLAME

THE FIRE BOX