Swimmer

Before I knew that you couldn't paint with glaze, heh, I made my "Swimmer" serving dish. Really, I lucked out here since the ground is a semi-matt yellow glaze that is very stable and painting over it is lightly done with cobalt.

The cobalt glaze was watered down. Since it is such a strong pigment, it shows up well even when thin.

Even though "Swimmer" is not falling, the imagery could be of someone falling as well as that of a swimmer. The inspiration for this design is the story of Icarus, the man who, along with his father, made wings of feathers and wax and flew. But Icarus, being a young man, became enthralled with going higher and higher and flew too close to the sun, which melted the wax and he plunged to earth and died.

Icarus has been represented many times in works of art and it's a theme that I roll over and over in my mind. One day I'll make a sculpture of it.

Hum--there's that flying theme again.