Daily Necessities

It may not look like much but this is the cupboard that Debra and I seem to be constantly going to throughout the day– an assortment of local coffees for the strongest espresso con latte in the morning (thank you Debra for bringing the machine, and my abject apologies for making fun of you when you suggested it). The remainder of the cupboard has a collection of black, roibus, mint and green teas that we seem to be drinking constantly – staying hydrated is no mean feat when you are working with clay. The evenings are another matter though – I think some of the best beer is brewed here and we have come to think of it as a major food group – it is delicious.

Firing the Bisque

Deb and Klari spent some time loading the bisque kiln today and this is always exciting as we can get to do the next stage – glazing and firing. We are planning on sharing a salt, wood and gas firings with some other artists – as well as the workload as the wood kiln needs to be fired all night. We should be able to unload the bisque tomorrow but even more exciting to me is the fact that a very well known Hungarian ceramacist by the name of Maria Geszler is coming to glaze her work and load a gas kiln for firing on Monday.

Pieces waiting to be bisqued

It seems ICS has many well known artists who use the excellent facilities for their work. I am exited about Maria being on site as I admire many aspects of her work. She uses screen printing for some of her surfaces which are very painterly and when I was asking a techician about her technique, I was told she cuts the screen out of the frame after the image has been transferred and this flexibility allows her to use small sections or the larger piece to work around a form– something you can’t readily do in a frame… easy and very clever.

Budapest Bound

Bridge Detail Crossing from Pest to Buda

Debra finds there is something about the Budapest structures that resonate with her  – she is almost non-stop exclaiming and sighing as she describes how beautiful she finds the forms and the details that abound such as cupids and cherubs alongside the ever present graffitti. We drove to Budapest last Tuesday with the Director of the Institute, Janos Probstner, to attend yet another opening of the second gallery managed by ICS. While we did attend the opening and presentation of some  Danish ceramacists, the main excitement of the day was being back in the city we are fond of. Walking over one of the many bridges from Pest to Buda in an area we had’t explored before on a magnificent Spring Day kept us walking lightly.

Budapest Street Scene

Of great interest on the drive into Budapest was Janos talking about his childhood as he grew up in Budapest.  While driving down Ulloi Street on our way to the gallery, he described when as a boy of 13 in 1956 in this very street, he was standing in a doorway while Russian tanks filled with soldiers killed everyone around him. His descriptions were so vivid and language so intense, it made me think he relived this event everytime he drove down this street, and I guess, how could you not?

Russian Orthodox Priests Sing

In the local Catholic church on Monday evening, we listened to the priests sing Tchaikowsky, Rachmaninoff, some Russian folksongs and what we think were Hungarian liturgical songs. We took some pictures of the inside of the church but were careful, as this didn’t seem to be the norm as it was at the Hungarian Dance concert a few days before… It was so cold in the church we thought we would freeze but when we sat down, the heat came up through the seats in what seemed like hot

Interior of Kecskemet Catholic Church

water heating! Quite inventive and very thoughtful although before the end of the concert we were roasted out. An evening of beautiful  music.

While we did not feel at liberty to take photos of the priests while they were singing, all propriety was gone after their final encore when a number of the fathers raced from the nave of the church to the entrance to sell their CD’s – even bargaining while doing a brisque business… such is the life of performers.