PWAC Victoria: Carole Pearson, Writing Sample

The Reading Room

Potter Marilyn Glick

by Carole Pearson © 2004

Victoria artist incorporates her love of the mystical and Celtic design in her pottery. Published in Boulevard magazine, Jan./Feb. 2004.

Bone boxes. Antler pots. Ancient Celtic designs. Dragons, crystals and semi-precious stones. These are elements found in the claywork of Victoria artist Marilyn Glick.

"I've always thought they look like relics," says Glick about her work, "like old pieces from days gone by, especially the antler pots. They look like they could have been unearthed from medieval times. The antler pots, to me, seem like a sacred object that maybe you would have found on an altar."

A Yellowknife native and youngest of four children, Glick learned the art of raku at Victoria's Fan Tan Raku Studio in the late 1980s. Over the years, her hand-built raku pieces have taken on a distinctive look, with antlers and animal bones used as handles and decorated with crystals, coloured stones and Celtic designs. Touches of fantasy and hints of medieval times are reflected in Glick's work. She says, "To me, it's unique. You don't see any other pottery like it."

Some of her inspiration comes from the novels of Ann McAffrey, Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey. "I love fantasy, so a lot of my work is in that realm," she explains. It was McAffrey's Dragonriders of Pern that inspired Glick's fascination with dragons. "I wanted to make my version of her spider lizard, a little miniature dragon that sits on your shoulder."

Temporarily putting aside her claywork, Glick began making her hanging dragons out of polymer, a modeling plastic that is fired in an electric kiln. A recent introduction to crystals prompted her to have the dragons hold crystals in their 'hands.' Glick's love of crystals would later resurface when making light boxes--single crystals in a decorated raku base with light gently glowing from within. And, again using the dragon motif, Glick often includes carvings or figures of small, friendly dragons on her light boxes and pots.

Glick enjoys mixed media and incorporates natural items from her own collections of antlers, animal bones, rocks and minerals. She also gets an eclectic assortment of items given to her by friends. A tattered stuffed pheasant was used to make a headdress for her bust of a shaman. Raven feathers were used in the mane of a zebra woman bust. Not long ago, Glick was given moose antlers and a wolf head pelt which have been stashed away for future use.

Celtic design is another of Glick's passions. When she first began looking at Celtic pattern books, she noted the design was used in jewelry and carved on stone but wasn't being used on pottery. Glick was eager to use the Celtic designs in her work and began once again to make clay pots. It was a friend, knowing about Glick's odd collections, who suggested using an antler for a handle. Glick gave it a try and fell in love with how the piece looked.

Years ago, Glick used to collect the deer and caribou antlers and animal bones from the woods when she went camping. Today, she gets them from friends who go hunting and from other artists and friends who happen to find these objects by chance.

"I try to get antlers that are natural falls," Glick says, "because the animals do lose their antlers but if they came from a kill, I feel as if I'm honouring the animal by using it in a piece. I know some people have had a reaction to seeing bones or even antlers used, thinking I've killed the animal just to get the antlers."

Glick also makes raku lanterns with a small bowl on the top to hold aromatherapy oils, letting the candle's warmth diffuse the fragrance. "The Crest" is of one of her more elaborate lanterns which stands 18 inches high and is studded with fragments of rose quartz and agate. The lantern opening is a centuries-old Celtic design which casts a flickering pattern on a wall that creates a mood of ancient times. "It took a lot of repairing," Glick admits about carving out the design. "There's so fine a space between the holes."

Glick uses two bamboo skewers for this work. One has an end cut sharply at an angle to make a blade, the other is blunt to dig away at the clay and leave a raised design. Carving and piecing the intricate work can take at least two hours and up to four hours to complete, depending on the size of the piece and detail of the design.

Glick relies on three basic metallic glazes to coat her raku pieces. "There's a white crackle, a shiny copper that gives you your iridescent flashes and just a raw copper which is a more subdued finish. There's also just the black of the clay which has no finish or glaze on it. I mix my own glazes because I know they work. The recipes were given to me by a friend who is a raku artist. They worked for him so that was good enough for me," she laughs.

The pieces are heated in a propane kiln for half an hour, until they reach a temperature of 1850 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, the glowing pots are removed with tongs and put into a metal container of combustible material. Glick uses a combination of shredded newspaper and wood shavings because, she says, "I find it gets a nice heat going."

The container is covered and, as the material tries to burn, the hot smoke pulls oxygen out of the iron oxide and copper and silver, leaving metals in the glaze which give raku its characteristic lustre. The pieces are often plunged into cold water to rapidly cool the clay and cause the surface to crackle. However, Glick says, "I don't use the water. I find it shocks the piece too much. Sometimes I will spray it with water but mostly I just leave it to cool."

American raku artist and teacher Paul Soldner has written, "If raku is not technique alone, then it needs to be defined by other means. What remains most descriptive, I believe, is to think of it's being pottery made within a mental framework of serendipity, expectation and the discovery of things not sought."

Serendipity does seem to play a part in Glick's works of art. The shaman bust she made was displayed in Rare Discovery, a gift shop Glick and a partner operated for three years at the corner of Fort and Blanchard streets. Glick recalls, "One weekend, a regular customer came in and saw it (the shaman bust). She went home and dreamt about it and, in her dream, the shaman was her, in another life, so the spiritual connection was definitely there. She came back and had to buy it."

This story illustrates the impact of Marilyn Glick's work. Her love of the unusual and thrill of discovery have allowed her to combine many elements of the natural and even the supernatural in her raku work.

Marilyn Glick's artwork can be found at:

Triple Spiral, 106-3 Fan Tan Alley, Victoria
Instinct Art and Gifts, 622 View Street, Victoria
London Sweet Stop, 109-2250 Oak Bay, Victoria (hanging dragons)
The Old School House Gallery, in Qualicum Beach
The Theatre Gallery, in Chemainus

Carole Pearson
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Last updated: November 16, 2005 http://www.islandnet.com/pwacvic/pearsn02.html