Terry Hagiwara
Artist Statement
Let my pieces speak to you. I find beauty in anything almost symmetric (or organized) but with its symmetry slightly broken (or with a hint of chaos). I appreciate controlled behavior of free and spontaneous fluidity. I am a native of Japan, and a resident of Houston, TX, USA.
I began taking ceramic classes from Bill Dennard at Glassel School of Art, MFAH, in 1989. I had never played with mud-water-and-fire before, even while growing up in Kyushu, Japan. Kyushu is famous for many ceramic sites such as Arita, Imari, Nabeshima, Karatsu, Takatori, Agano, etc.
I work with high-fire stonewares, sometimes with wood-fire, but more often with Raku firing. With Raku firing, I use glazes, whether metallic copper or crackle white, in simple geometric surface designs. I enjoy the challenge of creating patterns on a closed form.
Why I continue to work with Raku
What attracts me most to Raku is the wet-black surface of the burnished Raku pieces without glaze. Because of Raku firing temperature, it is not as shiny black as on the Southwest Pueblo potteries. This black surface is my black canvas I enjoy drawing. Left unglazed, the black canvas leaves crisp black lines and areas that are hard to realize with glaze. Next is the crackled glaze surface. I love crackled celadon and other crackled glazes on high fired stonewares. With Raku firing, crackles come more easily.
