COHEN
& COHEN
CLIFF
LEE
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Born into a Taiwanese
diplomatic family in Vienna in 1951, Cliff Lee went on to Study medicine
at Hershey Medical School at Pennsylvania State Collage and graduated
to become one of America's youngest and most successful neurosurgeons.
After five years of fourteen hour days without a holiday Cliff felt
the need to take a six month sabbatical and enrolled in a ceramics course
at the James Madison University, Harrisburg, VA. There he instantly
fell in love with the clay, met his future wife, Holly, and asked to
extend his sabbatical for a further six months to complete a Master
of Arts degree in ceramics.
At the age of 27, two years after his return to neurosurgery, Cliff made the decision to leave medicine and pursue his passion as a full time potter. Today he and Holly, a skilled jeweller, live and work at their farm outside Stevens, PA where they share a large studio in a restored barn. Working in porcelain, Cliff had to start from scratch
experimenting with materials available in the USA as kaolin from China
was unobtainable. Using kaolin from Georgia, feldspar and silica he
created his own secret recipe for the perfect porcelain body. Inspired
by his Chinese heritage he also set about solving the mystery of how
to produce the 1000 year old glazes from the Sung Dynasty (960-1280
A.D.), something that took him 17 years. Examples of these glazes and
those of later dynasties can be found in this catalogue and include
Imperial yellow, oxblood, blue-green celadon, eggshell-crackle Kuan
ware and the rough-textured bronze glaze known as lustre oil spot. |
The yellow glaze is one of Cliff's personal favourites and for shapes he is inspired by natural forms such as gourds, cabbage, melons and perhaps most notably, the lotus flower- one of the world's most ancient religious symbols (see cat. item no. 17). While other artists might welcome the accidental to add spice to their creative process, this is not for Cliff Lee. Cliff has struggled to achieve total control and predictable outcome of his porcelain, investing about three weeks (or 150 hours) on elaborate pieces such as the prickly melons. Each little spike on the stem is applied with surgical tweezers in a process that alone takes three days. If Cliff's hand slips or if he
misjudges a bowl's diameter by a millimetre, everything can be lost.
"There's nothing more difficult than working porcelain on the potter's
wheel. It lacks plasticity", says Cliff. "I have developed
a sensitivity, a dialogue with the material". He continues: "I
like it because it [the porcelain] cannot hide any flaw, cannot hide
any impurities. With porcelain you have no choice but to be very, very
honest." |
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Cliff and Holly Lee with the Clinton’s at the White House, Christmas 1993. In 1993 President and Mrs Clinton
asked Cliff Lee together with other artists to contribute to the White
House Collection of American Crafts. "Few artists have the skill
to carve porcelain like Cliff Lee" according to Michael Monroe
who organized the exhibition. |
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1.
LARGE OIL SPOT PORCELAIN VASE Height: 12 1/2 inches (30.7cm) Wheel thrown porcelain. |
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2.
TRIO OF VASES: CHUN BLUE, IMPERIAL YELLOW AND OXBLOOD Wheel thrown and altered porcelain. |
3.
OXBLOOD TEARDROP VASE #2 Height: 12 1/4 inches (31cm) Wheel thrown porcelain. |
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4.
OXBLOOD TEARDROP VASE #1 Height: 12 inches (30.5cm) Wheel thrown porcelain. |
5. CHUN BLUE VASE Height: 11 inches (28cm) Wheel thrown porcelain. |
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6.
SMALL OIL SPOT VASE Height: 7 1/2 inches (19cm) Wheel thrown porcelain. |
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7.
KUAN WARE VASE WITH RED FLASHING Height: 10 inches (25.5cm) Wheel thrown porcelain. |
8.
IMPERIAL YELLOW KUAN WARE TEARDROP VASE Height: 15 1/2 inches (39.3cm) Wheel thrown porcelain. |
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9.
GREEN TEA DUST VASE Height: 11 inches (28cm) Wheel thrown porcelain. |
10.
CELADON PRICKLY MELON VASE #1 Height: 14 inches (35.5cm) Wheel thrown porcelain, carved and applied. |
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11.
YELLOW PRICKLY MELON VASE Height: 14 inches (35.5cm) Wheel thrown porcelain, carved and applied. |
12. CELADON PRICKLY MELON VASE #2 Height: 11 inches (28cm) Wheel thrown porcelain, carved and applied. |
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13.
CELADON CABBAGE VASE ON A PEDESTAL Height: 11 1/2 inches (29.2cm) Wheel thrown porcelain, carved and applied. |
14.
CELADON DRAGON FLY BOWL ON A PEDESTAL Height: 6 inches (15.2cm) Carved wheel thrown porcelain. |
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15.
CELADON CABBAGE BOWL ON A PEDESTAL Height: 9 1/2 inches (24cm) Wheel thrown porcelain, carved and applied. |
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16.
STONE LAVA VASE Height: 11 1/2 inches (29.2cm) Wheel thrown porcelain. |
17.
CELADON LOTUS BOWL ON A PEDESTAL Height: 9 inches (23cm) Wheel thrown porcelain, carved and applied |
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18. LAVENDER CRATER GLAZE VASE Height: 11 1/2 inches (29.2cm) Wheel thrown porcelain with spider web pattern. |
