Stories of Things - The Ceramic Buddha

The little ceramic Buddha sits on the shelves above my fireplace. He’s about ten inches tall and is beautifully engineered to function as a sake pitcher, cup, and cup holder. It’s a tough one to do justice with only a photograph.

This little ceramic Buddha smiles and watches the life that happens in our household. Somehow he’s survived, unscathed, our cats that pass by him routinely in their hunt for the birds outside the big living room window.

This lil’ guy was made by a classmate of mine in my ceramics mold making class in 1996. Once people see that he’s more than a buddha figure, he triggers a lot of conversation and endures a lot of curious handling. This buddha’s creator’s name was Alisa, she made five of them as her course final. At the end of each school year, a bunch of us would exchange artworks. I had some shadow box pieces that people seemed to like a lot, one of those was my barter for this.

I’m pretty sure I made out with the sweeter end of the deal on this one.