Today’s blog will be an homage to two artists who are important in my life: Paul Mathieu and Eric Metcalfe. Paul recently sent me an email with a link to his digital Ceramics History publication, “The Art of the Future” so that I can include it in a blog. It’s long but it is a well-researched reference for students which he put together during the years he taught at Emily Carr University. There’s also a splendid youtube video on a young Paul, “The Space of Pottery: Ceramics of Paul Mathieu”. It was produced by his partner Richard L. Harrison for his UCLA Film Studies Masters degree. The two met as Paul was completing his MFA there just beforehand. https://www.youtube.com/@paulmathieu9352/playlists
To read the publication go to Paul’s comprehensive website at:
and find the publication here:
http://www.paulmathieu.ca/?page_id=687
This is the link to the movie:
http://www.paulmathieu.ca/?page_id=51
In the same email Paul invited me to join him for one of his Friday afternoon tea-times with his long-time friend Eric Metcalfe. For twenty years Paul has visited Eric in his nearby home in Mount Pleasant’s Western Front on Fridays for conversation on Art and Philosophy and for tea. When Covid hit they began a habit of walking in the neighbourhood. Sadly, Eric suffered a catastrophic stroke a year ago, but Paul has faithfully visited Eric, first as he recovered in St Joseph’s hospital, and now, as Eric is living at Youville Residence Retirement Home, every Friday he can manage, at least during the months he isn’t living at his and Richard’s new home in Umbria.
Eric met me back in 1996, when he found me at the studio I shared with Jay MacLennan at 5th & Yukon streets, in Vancouver. He was looking for a potter to make a tea-set. It was to be a follow-up to a gouache drawing he’d made of a tea-set bearing his signature Dr Brute persona leopard spots, which had been his contribution to Canada’s ‘World Tea Party’ entry for that year’s Venice Biennale.
Shortly thereafter, as I moved my studio into the newly opened Port Moody Arts Centre, I was persuaded to replicate over twenty Greek vessels which Eric trundled out to Port Moody to paint over a couple of years. The work became ‘The Attic Project’, a curated show that travelled to several public art galleries in Canada, and which earned me my only Canada Council Travel Grant to attend the initial opening at Lethbridge Fine Art Gallery.
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30765799633
Since then Eric has been the instigator of ‘The Raids’. He continued to request that I make the odd platter that he would paint with ever-changing angular designs to donate for Western Front presentations to supporters. Once I’d re-established a studio in my large home basement he began to invite other retired Emily Carr instructors to join us for a day of plate-painting. I make the plates, using my slab roller, and provide a big selection of underglazes. My artist friends have brought lunch contributions, we paint and chat companionably and end the afternoon with a cuppa. I am pleased to clear-glaze and fire their creations. In the process several of them have gone on to take pottery classes and buy kilns!
I was so pleased that Paul joined us for several ‘Raids’ and worked his magic on plates I’d made! One time we three even played ‘Exquisite Corpse’, each painting 1/3 of a plate.
There have been sporadic Raids since Covid brought socializing to a halt, but without Eric at the helm of the pirate ship it will be hard to keep up the tradition.
Last Friday Al dropped Paul and me off at Eric’s current home, and he drove down to VGH to visit his ailing brother. Paul led me to Eric’s tiny room on the fourth floor. We helped him to don a warm coat and headed out to spend half an hour in the really lovely peaceful walled garden. Then I understood why Paul likes to have a friend with him. Eric was plainly delighted to have us visit, and listened to us discussing our lives and the pottery world, but he can only start sentences. He seems to appreciate his room, meals and his care and appears content. The old Eric cheerily greets all the friendly staff. We can only hope that our conversation will contribute to the healing of his damaged brain cells.
Back inside, in Eric’s room, Paul kindly produced a thermos of milky tea, elegant pottery cups and home-made cookies. I’d brought along a couple of bisqued plates and a selection of underglazes as a Christmas gift/pastime for Eric’s endeavours. Now Karen tells me that she and Eric will enjoy a pleasant afternoon working on those together. Paul thought that Eric enjoys the company more than the effort of drawing and painting a design, all alone, so I’m glad Karen can do that with him.
During our Raids we often pondered the idea of showing some of the marvellous painted plates in a group show. Eric met curator Kate Bellringer who took on just that. I’m so glad that we had a wonderful event at Terminal Creek Contemporary Art Gallery on Bowen Island on a Summer day in 2019, the summer before Covid. It’s so important to make memories.
https://www.gillianmcmillan.com/blog/2019/08/19/bowen-island-day/
Friday’s visit gave me lots to consider. I am lucky to have met these men and to learn about their journeys in this unpredictable world of Ceramics. Garrulous colourful intellect, Paul, has spent his career creating incredible works of Art, having studied and perfected techniques for each process that he uses. He has been a much-admired ceramics instructor at workshops, symposia and Art Schools and his legacy will also be his writing. Now that he no longer teaches and is looking forward to establishing a new studio, home and garden, with Richard, in Italy, I sincerely wish that a Public Art Gallery in BC, his home province for much of his career, could show appreciation for his educational legacy to ceramics here, with a major retrospective, so that students, galleries and collectors could see and learn more about his work.
Biographies of Eric dwell on his Art School education in Victoria, and his career as a Performance Curator at the Western Front, his Dr Brute days and his love of jazz and Film Noir. But Eric has often said that he no longer needs to be associated with his leopard spots and that his work, painting on 3D ceramic surfaces, has caused a major change in his art-making. Always a man who drew cartoon-like images, I am so delighted to see the complex, colourful designs that have evolved from his time as a ‘Raider’.
In the early days of our cooperation I thought I was a collaborater in ‘The Attic Project’, but I have come to understand that Eric has been an organizer of makers who realize his ideas. I was a ‘potter for hire’ and the making of those huge vessels was an important part of my growth as a potter and I’m grateful.
Thanks for including me in a friendly afternoon, Paul. Perhaps you and I will meet at Eric’s for another cuppa when I collect two painted plates in the New Year, before you head off for Spring in your hilltop home overlooking Tuscany.
Now I have managed to reserve one of the last four available spots in soda firings at Shadbolt Centre in the Spring so will have a reason to work in stoneware for a while. Next thing here… TriCity Potters are coming for a potluck supper party on Wednesday. Al has done a super job of decorating a real (cut) tree for us, our first since 2019. Enjoy your holiday, friends!
I love this post Gillian! Your descriptions are vivid and touching. I appreciate the background that you give about your experiences related to friends and specifically ceramics. I look forward to a next raid hopefully in January. Best wishes to you and Alan.
I am so grateful for your keeping in touch with Eric. If I send a newsy letter to you could you pass my greetings along? To yourself and Al as well!
It was wonderful to see you this summer in your basement pottery studio. And getting to introduce two dear friends to you and your work. Hugs Claudia
Dear Gillian,
This post was very touching and pays homage to two fine artists and your association with them. I know Eric has always enjoyed and honoured his collaboration with Paul, Rick and many other artists over his career and in more recent years his association with the Raiders. Capturing the spirit and affection you feel for one another in a most tender way, we see more clearly into the life of ceramic artists. Thank you.
Raid on! Wishing you all the best in 2024.
Deborrah Krutzmann (Eric’s sister)
Victoria
Many Thanx for this wonderful piece on your relationship with Paul and Eric. With hopes it may continue, may I wish you and your family Seasons Greetings.
Rick Ross
Thank you Monique, Claudia, Deborrah and Rick, for your thoughtful and kind responses to my blog. That means a lot to me. Yes, we’ll endeavour to continue having Raids. My best wishes for the Season to you all too. Gill
Thank you, Gillian, for this latest blog. I admire what you’ve been doing with the Raiders: brava!!
All good wishes to you and Alan and family for the season and here’s to a repeat get together in the New Year.
Cheers
Jan
Thank you Gillian for such a wonderful post about Eric and Paul. I really admire the way you have fostered artist collaborations in your own studio and your continued blogs about events in the ceramics community. Congratulations and all the best for Christmas and the New Year. Tam.
Lovely post Gillian, thank you, and lovely to hear how Eric is doing, please give him a major hug the next time you visit. The Raiders was (is) a brilliant idea, and I’m grateful to you and Eric for welcoming me and introducing me to the joy of making ceramics. Best wishes to you and Al for a great holiday season and safe travels to boot! xxPierre
Gill, I have always loved Eric’s work. It has reminiscences for me of the early sixties work I admired when I used to hang out with the students from Coventry College of Art. He has my favourite design style, manipulation of colour, shape and movement. Long may he continue to explore and experiment.
Thank you for your comments Jan, Tam, Pierre and friend-from-sixties-college-days Dot. It’s marvellous that my blogs keep us in touch. I too hope that Eric will draw and paint some more.