Newly, the site of a BBS board and Shiho Kanzaki's News letter were established.

I have opened Jeff Shapiro's home page.

Enjoy!

Unfortunately the page of "Information of The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park" is closed. Because it is hard to get it from The Shigaraki Cultural Park.

Please bookmark the Mirror site address:

At the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, 1995 by Peter Callas

You can see the greatest American artist Peter H. Voulkos's works on this site.

Mr. Peter H. Voulkos is having his workshop since May 2 to May 24, 1996 at The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park (Tougei-no-Mori) in Shigaraki, Shiga, Japan.

I am a potter making traditional Japanese pottery by working with the oldtraditional methods. At the same time I also use a computer, which is amongthe most modern of tools. The bringing together of these two very differentways of working creates a bit of confusion for some people.
In addition, many people have expressed doubts about establishing virtualexhibition sites on the Internet. They express their concerns by remindingus that to appreciate the art of pottery it is important to see the realworks, to get a feeling for the pieces by touching the pots, and to feel theweight of the pieces in our hands.
I understand these concerns and am sensitive to them. But I have remindedmyself that over the years I have published books about my works, and havepublished many exhibition catalogs, in just the same way that other pottershave. I believe that it is accurate to say that these books are also"virtual" in nature. With this in mind, I made a decision to establish thishome page.

In 1987 I opened the "Biwa Communication Network" (or "Biwa-Com" as it cameto be called), using a personal computer. The number of Biwa-Com membersnow totals more than 2000.

In 1991, one of my friends, Mr. Izumi Aizu, placed a message on the Biwa-Combulletin board. The message was as follows: "Mr. Depo, the Town Administratorof Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, USA, will be coming to Japan in an effort toestablish a "sister-city" relationship with a Japanese city. He will bemeeting with some of the mayors of Shiga prefecture. And I am looking forsomeone to host him during his visit to Shiga prefecture."I readily agreed to this request, and hosted Mr. Depo during the month ofMarch while he made visits in Shiga and Kyoto. I shared several of myexhibition catalogs and books with Mr. Depo. He, in turn, took the booksback with him to Bloomsburg where he shared them with Professor Karl Beamerand Professor Ken Wilson who teach in the Art Department of Bloomsburg StateUniversity.

In May of 1991, as a result of his contacts here, Mr. Depo returned to Japanwith Professors Beamer and Wilson, for an extensive visit to my workshop. Asa follow-up to that visit, I was invited to Bloomsburg State University as anartist-in-residence during September, 1991.

In September, 1992 I once again visited Bloomsburg. I was returning homefrom Munich, Germany where I had just had an exhibition of my work. Duringmy visit with Mr. and Mrs. Karl Beamer I was touched by their kindness andgenuine good will. And as a result of our time together, I made a decisionto build an Anagama kiln in Bloomsburg.

In April, 1993 I built my Anagama kiln on the side of a hill on Karl Beamer'sproperty. I named the kiln the "Kanzaki-Beamer Kiln". We had our firstfiring in May, 1993. On the day of the unloading, more than 200 persons cameto see my works, including some Japanese collectors, and Mr. Jack Troy (who has introduced and featured the Kanzaki-Beamer Kiln in hisrecently-published book "Wood-fired Stoneware and Porcelain").

During September, 1995 I had the second firing at the Kanzaki-Beamer Kiln. In the firing were works made by Mr. Peter Voulkos, Ms. Toshiko Takaezu, Mr.Karl Beamer, and myself. I should also note that Mr. Peter Callas also cameto the firing to help us.

As I indicated earlier, I met Mr. Depo via Biwa-Com. And as a result of thatmeeting, I have been fortunate to develop many friendships, and especiallythe friendship I have made with my American brother, Karl. It has beenwonderful.

It is my hope that by developing an Internet home page, I might increase my opportunities to meet and talk with many more people all over the world. And additionally, I would like those of you from all over the world, to beable to see my friends' works. I think of them as my teachers. These arethe reasons I have established this home page.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the many kindnesses whichI have received from the persons whose names I have already mentioned. And Iam grateful to Mr. Dick Lehman for his assistance as I worked at establishingthis home page.