Bird Decorations for Stoneware 1935 - 1942

Curator: This intriguing drawing from Charles Caseau, created between 1935 and 1942, is entitled "Bird Decorations for Stoneware". It appears to be crafted with coloured pencil and graphite. What is your immediate take? Editor: Oh, I am loving this vintage vibe! It has the muted tonality of a well-loved textile, and those blue birds sing off the surface, creating a dreamlike sense of familiarity. They feel folkloric somehow, as if extracted from a treasured, well-worn children's book. Curator: Indeed. Birds frequently act as symbols of freedom, transcendence, or even messengers between worlds, but the fact that the vessels are also included opens up questions. Notice how there is an implied narrative of transfer? These creatures, or images of creatures, potentially move from life into the artistic object and back again. The interplay between what’s drawn on the stoneware versus the sketched birds is evocative. Editor: Absolutely. It's as if these aren't *just* decorative sketches, but ideas leaping onto and off of the pottery itself. There’s a playfulness about the process - ideas sketched in anticipation for pottery that never existed. This is a memory made physical—longing to nest somewhere beyond the page. Is it possible to see that desire in those cerulean strokes? Curator: That sentimentality may very well be present, if we follow Caseau's gaze. The images of birds within jars could represent contained emotions or captured memories. Alternatively, the surrounding free-standing figures could represent the desire for freedom and emotional expression outside the containers of conventional life. In the context of the Depression era, such dualities surely would have resonated. Editor: I think it also makes me think about art as artifact. The work here prefigures those cobalt glazes from the Qing Dynasty; the bird motifs that adorn everything from plates to pendants today. The visual connection it creates allows it to sing to us. It makes a quiet thing resonant! Curator: Ultimately, what begins as one artist’s decoration can evolve into a rich field of interpretation over decades, and across multiple cultural lenses. This is what keeps cultural symbols fresh and impactful. Editor: Definitely. Here’s a song on paper – waiting to fly free.