Stoneware Jar c. 1939

This “Stoneware Jar,” made by Philip Smith sometime between 1855 and 1995, has a funny illustrative style. It's like a diagram with a little bit of loving rendering. I'm taken by the color and surface – the warm, earthy tones create this grounding effect, and the details, like the wavy line details, add a tactile quality. It’s brown, but not just brown, you know? The colour has all these subtle shifts and modulations. It's kind of perfect, and it's like, what even is the perfect brown? It reminds me a little of Giorgio Morandi who spent his whole life looking at bottles. Looking at it, I start thinking about pottery itself and how the jar form is about containing, holding, and keeping. It relates to folk art and how it is a kind of everyday practice that everyone can have a go at. There is space for anyone to make art and that for me is the magic of this piece.