Gail Busch

"Hyalite"

Earthenware, 8.75" x 5.5" x 1.5"

"Once, when I'd finished showing my mother-in-law how to roll some kappa making sushi, she said, "Oh, I get it, it's one big potchke." Potchke is Yiddish for fuss. Potchke is my life. Each one of my teapot stacks takes forty hours to complete. People who have seen my work only in photos assume the pots are much larger, and made in molds. The stacks are very small, less than 12 inches tall. I coil build the bottom pots and whittle the tiny top pots from solid pieces of clay. I paint on glazes and terra sigillatas, creating a network of thin terracotta lines on the pots' surfaces by painting the forms around them. When I left the making of functional pots for the making of representations of functional pots, I had a hard time at first accepting the time I was devoting to each piece. I love functional pots, the simpler the better. So why am I someone who spends forty hours making one miniature, highly decorated teapot stack that can't be used to brew tea? I believe that we don't necessarily make what we like the best, we make what we make the best."

Gail Busch, Corpus Christi, TX

Studio Artist

MFA: Montana State University, BFA: Kansas City Art Institute

Artist-in-Residence, Archie Bray Foundation

Exhibitions: