A cold, sunny day at the Japanese Tea Garden, in Balboa Park, San Diego. Beginning our stroll thru the garden we saw a building with an art exhibit titled “Cataclysmic Oddities”.
Cataclysmic Oddities, by Michael Noble
The artist, Michael Noble, had arranged all his failed — I am guessing they were failed — pottery in a jumble at the foot of some unusual pieces.
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- Pottery, by Michael Noble
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- Pottery, by Michael Noble
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- Pottery, by Michael Noble
Massive, heavy pieces showing light glimmering thru the walls in random, unexpected places.
A different take on the function of clay… reminds me of the Wallace Stevens quote “We live in the chaos of the old sun.”
Japanese Tea Garden, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
Then the carefully raked sand around the rocks … an attempt to exert control over chaos.
Koi, Japanese Tea Garden, Balboa Park, San Diego
The indolent waving fins of the Koi reflecting our inability to stop-even for a moment.
A lovely day … some photos of the objects surrounding us at the Tea Garden.
Mary P Williams 
Hi Mary,
I just found your site and I like the pictures that you have taken.
The show was built around the idea of a cycle of creation and destruction. There were pottery tools at the beginning of the exhibition and the broken vessels spilled from them into the first cycle of creation (i.e. the bowls of bowls). The rest of the exhibition grew from the tumult into the peaceful green vases that were in the next room of the gallery and finally led back into the chaos of destruction.
I’m glad that you made it to the show 🙂
Michael
TheNobleArts.com