Yesterday afternoon I was out of sorts. I felt I wasn't speaking the right language. I was tired of the rain, the gray and searching for a secret language--one that could alter my vision, shift my familiarity with habitual paths, and make me aware of some form of expression I had not previously understood. As a potter I often feel like I speak a foreign tongue. I constantly try to teach my audience the language of use. The moment the rim touches one's lips there is the potential to wake up! There is an instant when shape and surface influence the taste of our drink, when the curve changes the sensation of the liquid's warmth. These combined experiences give us time to perceive a moment with real clarity.
"I think that the power of art is the power to wake us up, strike us to
our depths, change us. What are we searching for when we read a novel,
see a film, listen to a piece of music? We are searching, through a work
of art, for something that alters us, that we weren't aware of before.
We want to transform ourselves, just as Ovid's masterwork transformed
me."
--from Teach Yourself Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri
"I think that the power of art is the power to wake us up, strike us to
our depths, change us. What are we searching for when we read a novel,
see a film, listen to a piece of music? We are searching, through a work
of art, for something that alters us, that we weren't aware of before.
We want to transform ourselves, just as Ovid's masterwork transformed
me."--from Teach Yourself Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri
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