Hi, I’m Jacqueline.
Can you believe that within these country roads,
there’s a pottery studio right there?
If you want to learn more,
let’s go check it out.
Some people use cameras to take images of lotus flower,
and other people prefer to dye their fabrics with lotus petals.
In addition, some artists draw lotus flowers on potteries
so that they exist beyond the limit of flower season.
One interesting thing I would like to mention here is that
a lot of pottery works that you can see at Tainan city
come from this pottery studio.
This pottery studio in Baihe
is founded by an artist called Lin Wen-yueh
Here he focuses on art creation
and exhibits his creations in his gallery.
Wow! There are so many artworks here.
There are Chinese painting
and calligraphy works as well as potteries.
The vivid lotus flowers on the tea pot
look as if they are real.
The calligraphy works on the wall
seem like they’re having a dialogue with the statues in front.
It’s interesting.
Behind me is a kiln,
and all those works we’ve just seen were made from this kiln.
What’s so special about this kiln is that
they burn woods to heat up for making potteries.
Among these artworks,
I saw a huge pottery work.
Let’s find out which kiln it was made from.
The work that we just saw in the studio
is like two hundred and eleven centimeters.
It’s so tall.
In order to make such a big pottery work,
we also need a kiln that is big enough
to fit in this kind of pottery work.
And so the kiln behind me has a rail way track
that can move and combine the kilns together.
We happen to have the chance to see an artist creating his work.
Some works have to be reassembled
after they’re copied by the mold.
So, is this a lotus?
This is a symbol of lotus.
This work
is inspired by the saying “Lotus blooms untainted from the mud.”
We tried to transform this concept into symbols.
It’s different from common realistic lotus artworks.
Emerging oneself in the sounds of cicadas and breezes,
the artist creates his artworks in the wide-open nature.
Maybe this is why people say
“As long as you remain calm, you don’t feel the heat.”
And by letting go of one’s worries and concerns,
the artist can listen to his own thought
and infuse it into his creations.
After you feel its power of life,
you turn it into a piece of work
and then showcase it.
You save it and then deliver it again.
This is so-called “the effect of beauty” in life.
The transformation from one’s feeling towards
the nature to the creation of beauty
is quite profound.
Although you hear the sounds of insects
and chirps of birds here,
they actually calm you down.
The artist put aside his work
and treated me to a cup of tea,
with the breeze passing through me.
We enjoyed the Zen lifestyle.
Making friends through cups of tea
is probably like this.
For example, we held the Shang-su Festival
which a variety of artists would come and join us,
including musicians and artists who know how to make tea,
and pottery artists,calligraphy artists, etc.
I was impressed by one of the works in the gallery.
What a huge pottery.
It’s definitely a difficult task to biscuit fire the pottery.
This work,
except for the time I spent on building the kiln and that space,
took me three years.
Excluding style making,
it stayed in the kiln for fifteen days
before I took it out again.
The glaze applied to this pottery
is made of local materials:
mud from hot springs in Baihe,
limestone, and ash of lotus as well as longan trees.
Together they make the most natural glaze.
This upper layer
is made of wood.
We can draw it on the pottery due to its thick and pure texture.
It took me great work
to finish this fundamental research.
After spending like a half day here at this studio
And after drinking a cup of tea,
I feel like I’m totally relaxed.
And I think life is not so difficult.
It’s just the way how we think about it.
So I think maybe life is not so complicated as we thought.
And now I have more courage to face the difficulties
I am dealing with now.