‘It is a matter of physics’

nicole11@unm.edu

Professional potter Jim Srubek learned his craft from a Japanese national living treasure, and is one of the few teachers of the Arita method in the U.S.

Artisans from Arita, Japan, first started working with porcelain in 1616 and the people from that town collected techniques for successfully working with this difficult medium. Clay makes up only half or less of porcelain’s composition; the rest is mainly a combination of raw minerals.

Srubek said that the Arita method has been refined over the years, as artists figured out what works and what doesn’t. Porcelain was first created by Chinese potters, later adopted by Korean potters and then picked up by the Japanese who developed the Arita method.

The method has been in the making for more than 3500 years, starting when porcelain was first used. He said there is usually only one correct way of following the method — but this is because of the limitations of the medium.

“It is a matter of physics,” Srubek wrote in a handout he gives to his students. “Porcelain is governed by the universal laws of the physics and chemistry of its materials.”

He said there are many ways of working with porcelain, and Arita is only one of these. He said the method fit his personality, and so he dedicated himself to finding the “correct way.”

“There were no half-measures or partial commitments,” he wrote. “The more control I developed using the method, the easier it became for me to create my own unique artistic shapes.”

Srubek said the art almost seems out of place in New Mexico. He said he was doing a presentation on how to attach handles to a cup using the ‘dry-to-dry’ method with his sensei teacher. Somebody in the audience shouted, “That’s impossible. You can’t do that.”

Srubek had to explain that you can do it, and he said the story illustrates how little-known Arita pottery is.

Srubek said his classes at UNM were consistently full, with people on the waitlist, but now he only chooses to teach people who he feels have a true passion. He teaches out of a tiny personal studio behind a truck junkyard.

“I have a limited amount of time remaining in my life,” he wrote. “I truly believe that the most valuable asset I have is time. I want to give some of my valuable time to teaching this method to those who are receptive.”