Pascali Ceramicum Schizophrania

Let's all rejoice for the very first surviving chawan is out of the kiln...many died in the way

Pascal in two minds

Pascal once wrote that there was two kind of minds : the intuitive and the geometrical. No mind is purely one or the other without being totally wrong but each has its preference.

The geometrical mind knows how to formulate great principles and categories that are difficult to apply. « Thou shall never lie » says the geometrical mind, and it does so with an almost laughable  mathematic rigor.

Such kind of mind is not wrong in the way it uses reason but its principles are not adapted to society. Meanwhile, the intuitive mind see the principles that fits each situation but are unable to formulate or even understand great principles that are not in their society. 

Long story short : one think but does not see, one sees but does not think. To think or to see, you choose !

Yet, some situations require a certain mind and not the other one.

Clay to square


In ceramic, the geometrical mind goes through a tough time. My little geo-brain is always trying to define great rules of ceramics. As I start carving, I turn to « auto-mode » and barely actually look at my work. It is like beating the eggs white : follow the instruction and believe for a time. I do believe…for a time. My hand follows my mind and my mind wanders among different feelings while following its principle…so my hand wanders too. It follows my thoughts — anxious and sweet, happy or wondering…then anxious again for the walls of my tea bowl starts to be too thin…everything runs amok when I am about to break the bottom of the piece…I nervously carve in search for an emergency rule and…

Zen enlightement comes as my left hand, outside the bowl, get in touch with my carving tool inside the bowl. It is over. I wore through another one. Seems like a tea bowl is not like triangle. Mondo cane as the Italians say.


Meanwhile, Sasaki is still unable to explain to me anything about how one works the clay. He just shows me. And in a few minutes, three moves and two pressures, he has built up or carved a perfectly smooth tea bowl. It is utterly impossible for him to say why his hands act in the right way. He follows their sensations much more than his minds advices. Seems like his neurones are not in the right place…my geo-mind is in limbo…I should go back to my « triangle » tea bowls.

O raku ni dôzô,
let's be simple !








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