The Waterman Chronicles - a gallery of works by New Zealand artist, potter and poet John Waterman
gallery of works by john waterman :: new zealand artist, potter, poet

 

 

John Waterman - pottery and clay: Beginnings

 

People sometimes ask how I became involved with pottery.

The story goes something like this. Many years ago I worked in advertising. As part of my work I enrolled in a licentiate advertising course, run by local Auckland big-wig advertising agencies.

There before me, in one of the many sessions I attended, stood a highly-polished account executive from one of New Zealand's top agencies, telling us succinctly that dishonesty, manipulation and exploitation were an OK thing to do. In other words, it was OK to lie.

That, and one other event, finally convinced me to get out of this sorry game. After some headhunting by one of Auckland's big-name agencies, I ended up in the office of the man who who ran the whole show, and who might well be my future employer.

As he spoke, I noticed he had really bad...what I'd call 'stress-skin'. His hands were shaking constantly and he did not look a happy man.

Only one thought went through my mind - "If I work in this place, or continue to work in advertising in general, I'm going to end up like this guy!". That decided me - I had to get out!

It was like stepping off the edge of a cliff.

I had no parachute, and nothing else in mind that even remotely held any passion for me. Looking back, stepping into the unknown in that way opened its own doors to something new.

First came a tiny electric enamelling kiln, and sometime later, with the help of an accomplished potter, we built our first large diesel-fired brick kiln, powered with home-made pot burners.

This was followed by a number of other kilns, including the three- chamber Japanese climbing kiln and several large gas fired top-hat ceramic fibre kilns, raku kilns and so on.

I saw - and still see - so many folks around me who have no passion in their lives - just a dull plod day after day, burdened by the worker anthill, stress and mortgages - doing what they don't love, embedded in a society that neither cares nor recognises that it is the author of its own problems...like the fish that is the last to discover water.

It was the best decision I ever made. My nature is that I need to see the beginnings and endings of processes - to work with stuff I could reach out and touch - work that would nourish the hand and the heart, and allow me to connect with the elemental again: earth, fire, water, air, space, time, depth, challenge, learning and teaching.

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