Beautiful Imperfections

The works of Margaret Curtis

Margaret Curtis: Katakuchi Celadon

Margaret Curtis is a gentle, unassuming creator who channels her energy into producing Japanese-inspired ceramic vessels. She uses ancient Celadon and Snow-white Shino glazes and preserves firing techniques in oil and gas kilns.

Her approach to traditional Japanese techniques speaks of Wabi-Sabi, an elegant Japanese concept. The dual words promote humble beauty and a detachment from materialism, while Sabi denotes time and hidden beauty. The idea is about acceptance, embracing imperfections, appreciation, and living life simply and with heart.

Wabi-Sabi adopts an inside-outside approach. The idea is to bring the beauty of nature into the home and workplace. Margaret embraces this philosophy in her pieces and says:

“My work is the antithesis of the mass-produced and immaculately mastered and, as such, seeks to avoid perfection. This is where my interest lies: with the beauty of imperfection, a beauty that can come from ageing, natural decay, surfaces that have become patinated with wear, weathered, or uniquely deformed.”

Her best works are made when she is in a particular state of mind: relaxed and calm, thoughtful but not too forcefully engaged. She attributes this to the Flow Theory.

Margaret Curtis: Cylinder Shino

Artists often used the metaphor of water flow while describing their processes, as in interviews with Mihaly Csikszentmihályi, a Hungarian-American psychologist, in the 1970s.

“It was like floating—I was carried by the flow.”

The origins came from artistic endeavours, where skills, creativity, and levels of enjoyment merge, creating a sense of timelessness and a feeling of out-of-body experiences, a sense of effortless achieving resulting in Optimal Functioning. Further research became widespread in the 1980s and 1990s, and the theory was applied to schools, the business world, and sports arenas.

When she achieves this state, the work happens almost automatically. She feels less in control and more of an observer of what results from her efforts.

Margaret established her studio in 1979 in Scotland. Her sensitive approach to her art form and several decades of creating has made her work highly acclaimed and collected worldwide.

Margaret Curtis: Cylinder Celadon