What is Raku?

What is Raku?

Is it possible to view...

Yes...just by the few

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So for everybody else

Here are a few pictures

At the day's end

Here on Honolulu...

Watching the setting sun

Content After a

Morning of fishing...

The preening Heron

Spartan though it be

Life can be found in the...

Dryist of deserts

This stone arrangement

Found while on the endless and...

Meandering path

Stumble upon the

Eidelweise while trekking...

The mountain pass

The ephemeral

Ripples on a pond reach out...

To Infinity

Every-Thing's Maya

A Shadow or Refexion...

Of reality

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RAKU...is an extension of the Tea Ceremony...and a very sacred Japanese Art Form where the handling of money is anathema...a Monk living in the woods would invite somebody to partake in the drinking of tea "Cha Do" and would make drinking bowls for that one occasion...they were: quite crude and not "thrown", a single firing pulled out of the kiln still dipped into organic matter (leaves, saw-dust twigs etc), plus thrown into water causing a crackling of the glaze...so the finish would be quite unpredictable but it was the serendipic quality that gave its uniqueness and its beauty...the aesthetics of simplicity...in addition the bowls would be destroyed after being used just once and therefor ephemeral...the beauty of The Moment...never to be repeated!

A Zen Master is deemed to be a master of every art-form (or "Do") which also includes Ken Do, Aki Do...they are all ways of self expression.

This tradition is a bit like the Mandalas made with coloured sand in Buddhist Monastries...they are equally ephemeral and they a great antidote to a "culture" that cannot perceive Art that does not have a price tag (usually high) "created" by a celebrity with very little talent....This story will continue....

Haikus like Raku have a similar origin...they are very concise poems of 17 syllables in 3 lines of 5-7-5 syllables and traditionally express the different moods of the changing seasons but these days can be expressing the different moods and the changing world...

Snowing pink blossom

Ravens grubbing for worms...

This wet May morning

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Brushed by a bird's wing

A woman serenely sits...

Beauty steals the Hour

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Bending with the wind

The Taoist gathers water...

In a straw hat

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Squawking family

Feeding time for the Herons...

High-up in the trees

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An empty mirror

Does not discriminate...

It Reflects all things

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Raku originated in the late 16th C celebrating the beauty (Wabi) in simplicity by the great master of tea; Sen no Riku (1522-1599) whose patron was the War Lord Oda Nobunaya (1534-1591)...too be continued

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Further into the world of Raku...in the Myriad of Art-Work that exists in the world maybe there is much that has been totally neglected...that for which money never exchanges hands...that which is only seen by the lucky few...that which evolves for which no individual can claim credit (Folk-Art)...that which is purely tharapeutic for the creator (out-sider/primitive/naieve) & the truly ephemeral/serendipic...so all this neglected art that is bereft of celebrities or house-hold-names and which do not "figure" in the commercial world because they are just too cheap & the fat-cats would rather buy one painting with their millions than buy thousands of works by "lesser-mortals"...we are in a serious recession and one would think the time is ripe for affordable work of merit to be sold in Community Art Centres all round the country where no hype will be needed where real quality would be recognised for what it is and where Satchi & Satchi "do-not-have-a-say"...Amen!

On Sunday 21st Jun at "Tea-Time" i shall be having a Mcclure's Raku...which will be a single firing of all images created by me that i have in stock in my studio in Trewellard, Cornwall...which will include paintings (framed & unframed), drawings, sketches, photographs so that i will be left with no images except a Navajo Rug and all other images by other artists i shall donate to a worthy cause...this will be nothing short of an "Iconclast" i will be purged of all points of reference and will give due diligence to where i go next...So i will be offering my work to the Gods of Fire...and will offer the ashes to a few worthy souls...this may sound a bit extreme but in these trying times i could not avoid getting a bit passionate with the Greed that has crept into every fibre of our fragile community...an example has be made of people who "give-their-best" always regardless of money and who do not not need bonuses or incentives...who's natural instinct is to serve the community in which they live...

Raku like Talismans, Mandalas, Kolams, Celtic Design is not about money...it is about True Culture...