23. Elise Chezem, white pot

23. Elise Chezem, white pot

Elise Chezem (April 29, 1931–July 15, 2013) lived in Salinas, California, in the Monterey Bay area. She was active as an artist, teacher, and promoter of the arts. At Eden West Artworks, her studio in Salinas, she worked not only in clay but also in metals and fibers. She was also a professional photographer and graphic designer. In a short statement that came with one of her pots, dating to about 1990, she wrote: “For the past 25 years I have expressed my need to create through the medium of clay—muscling it or allowing the soft alive medium to flow through my fingers into pieces that create light and shadows of their own. Forms of function, fantasy and pure design: high-fire and raku all fascinate me. How far can I stretch us both, the body and the mind? This is my passion.”  I bought items 23-27 at Peninsula Potters (www.peninsulapotters.net), a coalition of women potters, located in Pacific Grove, California.

Coarse light-gray clay; white glaze on interior of pot and horizontal band around body. Weight: 1118 g (2.5 lb). Rim diameter: 9.2 cm (3-5/8 in); foot ring diameter: 6.5 cm (2-1/2 in); maximum diameter: 15.5 cm (6-1/8 in). Height: 10.7 cm (4-1/4 in).

The foot ring is about an 0.3 cm (1/8 in) high. The clay within the rim was removed to about half this depth; the artist signed the pot with an incised “Elise” in this area. The body of the pot is divided in two by a 1.3 cm (1/2 in) wide, smooth, glazed band around the circumference, positioned above the middle of the pot; the bottom of this band is approximately 5.5 cm (2-1/4 in) above the base. The band is slightly convex. The rim is elevated above the body of the pot by about 0.15 cm (1/16 in). The clay was curled inward at the rim to form a lip about 2 cm (3/4 in) wide curving downward. Investigation with fingertips reveals that at the lower end, the lip juts outward from the interior wall of the pot body; there is an open space behind the lip, and the lip does not touch the interior wall for about half an inch upward. The exterior of the pot with the exception of the central band is pitted and irregular; it appears to have been scoured with a rasp-like tool. The direction of the scouring is consistently in horizontal lines around the body of the pot. 

The interior of the pot and the band around the middle on the exterior were glazed in white. The rest of the pot is unglazed.

This pot juxtaposes finished and raw, smooth and rough, polished and coarse. 

Purchased at Peninsula Potters in Pacific Grove, California, in the early 1990s.