Vessel
Liesl Jobson
Make a pinch pot every day. It’s the simplest thing, the hardest thing.
Don’t wait for passion or vision. Or bouquets of inspiration. Expect
monotony. You will be bored, like you were as a kid, when you practised limping
scales
on that reluctant piano. You always curled your thumbs too late, displacing
the rhythm.
You are a beginner again, learning the limits. Motivation won’t appear
until you do. It might not appear anyway, but start with the clay—one glob
fitting well in your hand. Roll it in a ball. Dip your thumb in the middle to
form the centre. You might want to put it on your nose, like a clown, hoping
for a diversion to alleviate the nothingness you feel. But don’t. It
will spoil the shape.
Rotate the ball, pinching as you go, to even out the emptiness. Keep an even
thickness in the walls. Do it daily because your life depends on it. It’s
not a hollow gesture. Reach for that perfect form in this simple task. Do not
curl your thumb too soon. Take time. Gently pat the bottom on a flat surface.
For stability.
Once your daily pot is done, then be ambitious: mould a stallion rearing from
a pedestal or coil a giant urn for a corporate client, rolling long cool snakes,
scratching each surface with a red plastic fork. Moisten the cross hatches, blend
and stroke.
Or try a nude: form a short thick snake for a flaccid penis, devote your good
eye to the glans. Laugh when you realise your tongue is hanging out as you fondle
his balls, cupping them like a lover.
Next day roll another lump, make another pinch pot. Don’t skip this step.
How else will you press your emptiness into substance? Do it every day, this
pulling of something from nothing. Don’t rush. Keep each pot on your
windowsill. At month end select the most nearly perfect one for the kiln. Return
the imperfections
to the sludge where you will wedge them another day. At the end of the year,
glaze the only one that did not keen or wilt or slope in the firing.
Every ten years, select the most nearly round pot, throwing the rest away lest
they become holders of stale garlic, paper clips, old mints. When your days
are almost done, lodge the best pot at the crematorium. You will be familiar
with
the inside of the furnace. You will not be afraid. And when you’ve been
fired, your gritty remains of bone and ash will fill that hollow you perfected
once with your thumbs.
First appeared in Green Dragon
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