Pots and Saints

We had a nice, easy day yesterday. On impulse, we decided to drive up to Collegeville, Minnesota to visit our friend, Richard Bresnahan. He's the Artist-in-Residence at St. John's University and has been leading their pottery and ceramics program for some time. He spent 4 years in Japan with the Nakazato Family, who have crafted pottery for thirteen generations and are considered a Japanese "National Living Treasure Family."

The studio spends the year generating hundreds of works which are 'fired' in the Joanna Kiln each October on the St. John's campus. The Joanna Kiln is the largest wood burning ceramics kiln in North America. Composed of three chambers, the kiln is 87 feet long, 6 feet 8 inches high, 6 feet wide and has a capacity of 1,600 cubic feet. A kiln of this size enables forklifts to enter the front and back and allows, for the first time in the U.S., the wood firing of large-scale sculptures. Richard uses only sustainable and natural materials in his work - no chemical dyes or glazes - and has stored a natural repository of clay to last the studio and university 300 years.

The Benedictine campus of St. John's also subscribes towards a strong environmental ethos. All furniture made for the campus is harvested and built by the monks themselves in forestry program that is maintained with the most stringent sustainable standards. It's a pretty wonderful program and the location is pretty beautiful. The campus is spectacular, with buildings by one of the greatest modern architectural masters - Marcel Breuer - who was contemporaries with Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, the Saarinen family, Mies Van Der Rohe and Walter Gropius.

Back to the pottery: the firing takes about three to five weeks. Unfired pottery needs to be stacked such that glazes and pieces don't stick; a process that can take a few weeks. The firing itself can take from a week to 10 days. It takes a about a week for pieces to cool sufficiently, and a few more days for all the pieces to be removed. Pottery then is cleaned with diamond tools and rubbed down with water and emory-cloth. It's a pretty exhaustive process, but the results can be spectacular. It's hard to photograph how beautiful some of the pieces are, but hopefully the images below can suggest some of the special quality of Richard's work.

The girls love going. The Lion and the Lamb enjoy being measured against a column in the studio -to see how much they've grown since our last visit. We have measurements of the Lion when she was seven months old. She's doubled in height since then, and the Lamb has grown about 7 inches since last year. Richard also gives them free pottery each year. Last year was a couple of kiddy sized cups; yesterday they got some plates from this year's firing... We're hoping to go back in a couple of weeks when all the pieces have been unloaded and cleaned up. Hopefully we can pick up one or two pieces...

Richard Bresnahan's Pottery Studio at St. John's University

Unloading the first part of the 'Joanna Kiln' at St. John's Pottery

Select pieces from the Tanagashima Chamber of the Joanna Kiln which will be sent as gifts to Japan

Some cups...

Apple sliced cups

Richard's office...

Richard's pottery studio tea-pit and tea-table...

Fall leaves and two (not-so) litte girls...

The Lamb sitting in a chair I covet at the Alcuin Library on the St. John's Campus. I love this chair. I. Love. This. Chair. Anybody listening? On the Knoll furniture website, the smaller version of the chair starts at $2518 (not inlcuding the Ottoman, which is ABSOLUTELY necessary). It is one of the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in. Free shipping on orders over $100.00. It comes in black and white and beige too.

St. John's Abbey Church.

The Abbey Church, outside.

The Bell Tower of the Abbey Church

St. John's Abbey Church