VICTOR SCHMITT-BUSH
Assistant News Editor
Distinguished teaching professor and emeritus Marvin Bjurlin returned to Fredonia on Friday to celebrate his 50-year-long journey as both a potter and educator.
His exhibit titled, “A Potter’s Path,” is located in the Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery. It hosts a collection of his works, but it also pays homage to the connections he has made over his half-century long journey.
“It’s been a wonderful ride,” said Bjurlin after encouraging every former student of his to raise his or her hands high. “To a large extent, it is the result of the students that are here. You are the ones that have made my career worthwhile, and I am so pleased that several of you have been able to come from parts across the United States to help me celebrate this evening.”
He commemorated the impact that his former students and colleagues had on his life by hosting an upstairs show above his own exhibit. It displayed a large collection of their pottery works.
“On Facebook, I found 22 willing participants from across the United States who sent me a box of unfired clay forms,” he said. “We put those in my Scott Creek fireplace, and we fired our work together.”
“To me, [the upstairs show] is more exciting than this old stuff because it was a coming together, once again, with people who have profoundly affected my life while they were my students.”
Among one of his colleagues to make it to Bjurlin’s event was Jim Reno, a potter/artist who has traveled far and wide and has known Bjurlin for a long time.
“I’ve been doing a lot of traveling over the years; Mexico and Europe and China. We met when we were probably in our 30s. I make porcelain pots now.”
Bjurlin mostly works with pots, too, but his creative process isn’t limited by any stretch. Perhaps his works that got the most attention that night were his wall mounted fish heads.
“Personally, I’ve never seen anything too similar to this,” said animation and illustration major Clayton Firster. “The detail of these fish, I think, is amazing. There are so many different species there. That’s a lot of work to be proud of.”
Ralph Blasting, the dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Fredonia, also had a lot to say about Bjurlin’s work. According to Blasting, Bjurlin’s work both as a teacher and a potter could best be described as a testament to the basic nature of the medium he is working with.
“For Professor Bjurlin, [when he is teaching] the starting point is clay, perhaps the most elemental medium. Showing students how to use their hands to shape earth into an object that takes the form of their imagination is a learning process as fundamental as the clay itself,” Blasting said.
Making a pot is secondary, according to Bjurlin. Being creative, resourceful and inventive comes first.
“These are all character traits that will transfer to any other endeavor,” he said in an interview with freelance arts journalist Rebecca Ritzel in Bjurlin’s A Potter’s Path exhibition publication. “Clay is a good teacher because it is both soft and hard, fragile and durable. It is very sensitive to the working environment. Often it resists logic and demands intuitive handling.”
Bjurlin might be a retired professor, but Blasting said that his journey is far from over.
“When we were thinking of this exhibition, Marvin was insisting that this is not a retrospective of 50 years of completed work; this is a potter’s path,” he said. “This represents an artist [who is continuing to follow] ideas and inspiration in directions wherever that takes them.”
The same goes with Bjurlin’s “A Potter’s Path” exhibit, according to Reno. It only marked the beginning of his tour. His studio on 25 Maple Ave was also open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday as part of the Pottery Studio Tour.
“Go see his new work and see what he’s doing,” said Reno. “He’s still making a lot of pots and they’re really nice.” Bjurlin’s Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery exhibit will be open and free to the public Tuesday- Thursday noon to 4 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 6 p.m., and Sunday noon to 4 p.m until Nov. 16. “A Potter’s Path” is funded by the Fredonia College Foundation’s Cathy and Jesse Marion Endowment Fund and Friends of Rockefeller Arts Center.