Our last Kick-About was inspired by performative birds-of-paradise with their quirky and eccentric behaviours by which to garner attention. No less quirky (and no less plumaged!) is this edition’s muse – the ceramicist, George Edgar Ohr – otherwise known as ‘the mad potter of Biloxi’. Enjoy this latest collection of new works made in a short time—and find all previous editions of The Kick-About collected right here.
Jan Blake
“I had not come across this wonderfully dotty potter George Edgar Ohr before but felt compelled to play with him giggling in my mind. I decided to dig around amongst the discarded pieces in my reject pile. These two pieces suddenly became friendly and rather absurd as if they were making up their own games and performing to be photographed. It took me back to myself as a child constructing worlds from bits of twig, grass and mud. I was always constructing things and making homes for insects that roamed around the garden. What a delight that was.”
Phil Gomm
“You get a real sense from George Ohr’s work of the possible freedoms for creative people that come with not benchmarking ourselves against ‘everyone else’ – much harder to do now when we can always see what everyone else is doing (and how well they’re doing it!). I was drawn to the organicism of Ohr’s ‘collapsed’ pots and reached for some nearby felt as my malleable material. Very simply, I cut some circles, doubled them up and then ran some thread through them—pulling it tight—to bring about the puckering and the curvature.’
Graeme Daly
“Some very quick and dirty vases made with play doh and my hands as an ode to George Edgar Ohr”
@graemedalyart / vimeo.com/graemedaly / linkedin.com/in/graeme-daly / twitter.com/Graeme_Daly / gentlegiant.blog
Lewis Punton
When it came to tackling this latest Kick-About prompt, I couldn’t seem to get past the fact that all of George E. Orh’s ceramics had a certain Dark Crystal something about them. To me at least, they looked like the sort of fantastical artefacts that a Gelfling would have stumbled upon in a misty swamp on their home world of Thra...”
James Randall
“What a wonderful prompt—crazy-good! I just ran with the idea of a vessel – a ceramic piece or glass or building or indeed a person, and came up with three results. All layered Illustrator and Photoshop.”
Kerfe Roig
“I first painted some mandalas inspired by the pottery on both watercolor paper and chemex coffee filters. The watercolor paper is heavy and doesn’t bleed through, but the filters bleed through to the wax paper I put underneath, so I used those too. On #1, I folded the wax paper and left the filter as a ground. On #2, the watercolor paper, I folded the paper. It was quite thick, so I ended up having to glue it rather than stitch it. It also didn’t fold as easily. For #3 I folded the filter, and used the wax paper as a ground. I have more painted mandalas but no time as I’m off to the beach. They will join the pile of my many unfinished KA explorations…”
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
Judy Watson
“I’m late to this Kick-About, because I’ve just arrived home in my studio after a month away. But I thought I’d throw together a quick response to the Kick-About #111, especially as it’s such a cool number. The prompt was the Mad Potter of Biloxi, a nickname for George E. Ohr, a most excellent American ceramicist who lived from 1857-1918. His wonderful glazes and crumpled shapes, along with the seemingly weightless and wandering curlicues he attached to some of his pots, are deliciously attractive. (So was his moustache). I had only a couple of hours to do something with this, and although Kerfe had spent time, thought and energy exploring a range of processes to stunning effect, I brazenly ripped off a fast and cheap imitation in my own style. Sorry, Kerfe. Love your stuff. Apologies also to George, because your colour harmonies are superb and I have gone OTT without any attempt at subtlety. But George, you’re dead, and anyway I think you wouldn’t care.
Step 1. Clamber about in the ‘catacombs’ under our house and locate one of the much used and highly versatile x-ray development trays my Dad used in his veterinary clinic.
Step 2. Place paper in the X-ray tray. In the absence of the mysteriously missing water sprayer, (What have you guys done with this since I went away?) douse some paper with water from a watering can, until fully soaked but not disintegrating.
Step 3. Pour excess water back into the watering can using the handy spout at the corner of the x-ray tray. (Thanks Dad)
Step 4. Apply inks with abandon.
Step 5. Apply random brushes with abandon.
Step 6. Fashion paper into a horse shape, Ohr/Roig style.“
“Step 7. Have another go, adding glue.
Step 8. Photograph and adjust levels / colours in PhotoShop.“
www.judywatson.net /Instagram.com/judywatsonart / facebook.com/judywatsonart
And from the undulating pottery and vibrant glazes of ‘the mad potter’ to the undulations of Victor Vasarely…
Red's Kingdom 
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