Teapot

Carl Erickson decorates his ceramic pots with shapes inspired by the landscape around his home in Minnesota. The layers of rich blue glaze on the surface of this teapot evoke the deep lakes of the northern Midwest,and the maple leaves appear to float across the surface of the water as if drifting with a gentle current. The pot's simple, rounded shape recalls Yixing teaware,which originated in Jiangsu Province in eastern China. In this way, Erickson combines North American imagery with Chinese pottery traditions and the ancient practice of brewing tea.