An Observation of Nature By Kippra D. Hopper |
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| (Editor’s
Note: The following is based on excerpts from the upcoming book, “A Meditation of
Fire: The Art of James Watkins, A Twenty Year Survey,” by Kippra D. Hopper and to be
published by Texas Tech University Press in September 1999). Potter James Watkins possesses a love for the land. In his last 20 years of work, he especially has frequented those spaces in Texas that have provided the greatest stimuli in his art: Caprock Canyons. Junction. Sonora Caverns. The Muleshoe Wildlife Refuge. Rattlesnake Canyon. |
In Caprock Canyons James Watkins is aware of eternity as he views ancient rock outcroppings. Often creating hidden images through colors and contrasts, Watkins says he thinks about the symbolism of earth and sky a horizon, on the outside surfaces of his pots, as in the work on the left called guardians and the representation of the rattlesnake in the pot on the right.
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aving a sense of place means one is acutely aware of
his or her surroundings and the inherent beauty thereof. In West Texas, particularly, one
must look with a patient eye to see the magnificence of these semiarid lands. One develops
this keenness by becoming an intense observer and by taking nothing for granted in
one’s environment.