Phillip Supersad combines ceramics and music with a stringed instrument in the making. - Photo by Mel Cooke

As the late dusk which characterises summer draws nearer and the sounds of urban life get a little more lively last Tuesday evening, Phillip Supersad connects his early days in art to the studio he works in on North Street, downtown Kingston, with a casual remark.

"You know, is here I went to Art School," he tells The Sunday Gleaner, which only knows the Edna Manley College on Arthur Wint Drive.

'Super' (a friend who visits shortens Supersad's surname into a nickname as well as, The Sunday Gleaner suspects, acknowledge-ment of talent) is naturally well advanced in his art from his student days, although the physical location is the same. Still, the seeds of his diverse abilities had already started to shoot when he was learning at the place where he now has his studio.

His integration into the community is evident from the ease with which he converses with residents who walk in through the open gate.

Supersad relates a former lecturer, George Rodney, telling him that when he was at art school he could have been anything he wanted. And smiles as he recalls someone at a relatively recent drumming performance, listening to two women argue if he is a drummer or a potter.

"Him stand up and laugh, because is one and the same man," Supersad said.

Then, when he was in Tanzania in the early 1990s, Supersad was described as "a sculptor who uses the wheel", which he says is "a unique definition, although other potters use the wheel".

fourth dimension

He adds a fourth dimension to potter, sculptor and drummer - educator, "in the sense that I lecture at the Edna Manley College, to pass on what I have learnt but also because I have learnt there and I want it to continue".

Today, though, The Sunday Gleaner is looking at the work space of a man who makes a living from ceramics, "in the sense that Saturday morning I can go to supermarket". 'Super' describes it as "a simple workshop" and The Sunday Gleaner immediately asks about the scale that hangs over the area where his potter's wheel is, and is in a style that is a throwback to years past.

He said he has had it for about 20 years and it was a gift from his mother-in-law. "We weigh a lot. Each work is done from a particular weight," he said, saying that a coffee mug may take a pound of clay, a wedding souvenir half a pound and a big vase 20 pounds, just for example.

From the old to the ultra-modern, below and to the right of the scale is what Supersad describes as "the Lexus of potter wheels. It makes one little noise, to tell you when you are exceeding weight and pressure". Apart from that the electrically powered wheel, which can run up to 150 pounds of material, is silent. Supersad says although he has run up to 80 pounds, his normal 'excess' is 30 pounds.

"This is the most expensive piece (in the studio), but not necessarily the most precious. My kiln is the most precious," Supersad said.

Behind the wheel is a mirror and Supersad smiles as he says "it is not there to admire myself. It is not there for me to look good while I am doing the work. It allows me to look at the work from twice the distance. It allows me to see the work without putting myself in an uncomfortable position."

master craft

The studio is simple, but the array of pieces in various stages of production that The Sunday Gleaner gets a look at are not. And seeing finished work on display captured by Donette Zacca (Supersad beams as he goes through a CD of pictures she has done) is to really experience it in a different way. Some of that finished work is now on show at the Mutual Gallery, up to the end of July.

The simplicity continues outside the studio, in the yard space where Supersad dries the clay that he uses. He explains to The Sunday Gleaner that he really prefers to use Jamaican clay and often searches for raw material then combines them to his required specifications. The exception is white clay, which comes from abroad.

"The product can be a totally Jamaican product. The raw material is Jamaican and the potter is Jamaican," he said.