Thoughts Edward Eberle

Theoretical clay composition is known as Al2O32SiO22H2O -- that is, one alumina molecule to two silica molecules to two water molecules. These water molecules comprise the 'chemical water' of clay or that which is chemically bound. Process water (or the water used in the process of forming the clay) is considered the ‘free water'. Terra sigillata is a clay/water system used for painting ceramics and can also be described by this same formula (Al2O32SiO22H2O). In the process of painting terra sigillata onto the clay surface of the vessel there is an intermingling and exchange between the surfaces and then an evaporation of the free water. In the fire, chemical and molecular changes occur to the clays. The chemical water is fused between the two clays and a dissolving takes place making it difficult to distinguish between the clay body and the clay paint (terra sigillata). The paint and surface become one. Alchemically speaking, "The matter is dissolved in its own water." The subject matter (or content of the painting) is likewise dissolved in its own water, literally and metaphorically.




...thoughts...

...there is no narration, no beginning, no end, no middle, just an indeterminate, floating form...

ONE H2O Somewhere at the bottom of the ocean, probably in the Pacific mass, is at least one molecule of water that is intact; that is, a molecule of water that has remained in generally the same deep 'place' as in it's creation and has not moved the inevitable cycle of other water molecules through rain, steam, human, tree, river, lake, cake, rat, bat, cat, and the like...
The water molecules present at creation have gone through many cataclysmic changes and have been many things in just as many forms and served as many functions. There may still be one. >< Water washes the clay from the mountainside, the clay having been exposed by tectonic movement. The cycle of clay and water ends in the fire...for a long, long time. The water of the clay is sent into the atmosphere from the fire chamber, through the flue and the stack. The free water leaves. The chemical water leaves. The clay arrives in powder form. Add too little water and the clay is too stiff to freely form. Add too much water and the solution becomes a clay slurry. The amount of water necessary for the porcelain clay to be workable has a very narrow parameter. The clay is allowed to rest for a year and then springs to form. Water is the lubricant used to overcome friction in throwing the clay on the potters wheel - the final dousing of water helps to give the clay form. Clay form. Water form.
	Detail of Water "7 x 95", 9.5x15.5x16.5, porcelain, 2006
	Collection of Carnegie Museum of Art


Theoretical clay composition is known as Al2O32SiO22H2O -- that is, one alumina molecule to two silica molecules to two water molecules. These water molecules comprise the 'chemical water' of clay or that which is chemically bound. Process water (or the water used in the process of forming the clay) is considered the ‘free water'. Terra sigillata is a clay/water system used for painting ceramics and can also be described by this same formula (Al2O32SiO22H2O). In the process of painting terra sigillata onto the clay surface of the vessel there is an intermingling and exchange between the surfaces and then an evaporation of the free water. In the fire, chemical and molecular changes occur to the clays. The chemical water is fused between the two clays and a dissolving takes place making it difficult to distinguish between the clay body and the clay paint (terra sigillata). The paint and surface become one. Alchemically speaking, "The matter is dissolved in its own water." The subject matter (or content of the painting) is likewise dissolved in its own water, literally and metaphorically.
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