Capturing lost love

John Bauer lives to make ceramics. His art is like breathing for him. Making a living from his work is incidental.

"I work for the pure pleasure of it," he says, "to experience the fulfilment of my creativity."

He has high expectations for his work: "I aim to create beautiful objects that will sit on people's coffee tables and set them free to enjoy their lives."

Bauer's house teems with his creations and inspiration.

"I've been making ceramics since the age of 12, but my father told me I couldn't be a ceramicist because we didn't have enough money."

Bauer says he's "blessed with being completely rubbish in life. I was so significantly bad at everything besides pottery that my father finally allowed me to pursue the seemingly nonprofitable career".

"Anyway," he adds, "if you're doing something creative just for the money, it's not worth doing. Then I may as well be an actuarial scientist, like my sister."

It seems ironic that Bauer's work is now coveted all over the world. He had his first big order three years ago when Anthropology, a craft chain store with 100 outlets throughout the US, placed an order worth more than R100 000 with him.

"I'm always ready for a sudden big order. I work fast and efficiently and have four big and two small kilns. I make everything myself. I want every piece to be unique and worthy of going into a museum."

His delicate bowls are adorned with mythical creatures and angels that reflect his vehement belief in ghosts, auras, magic and miracles. The fantasy world of his work is self-referential and coherent, like that of the work of William Blake. It's both an escape from and an expression of the emotional difficulties that Bauer has endured and overcome.

When he was six, Bauer's mother and grandmother were killed by a drunk driver. Repeatedly told they had gone to heaven, Bauer began to express his ideas of this place and its inhabitants in his work. The yearning for a lost love is a palpable element in his work and is one of the reasons why his work is so expressive. Collectors of his pieces feel an emotional attachment.

Bauer makes his childhood memories tangible. Doilies often form a backdrop to figures immersed in the circular, radiating patterns.

"Doilies are a dying art form," he says. "Part of my life is devoted to the preservation of the doily, which simply can't be seen as a negative act. In this way I become a pioneer of good and good intention."

Pioneering a new technique in ceramics, Bauer also makes bowls in porcelain that resemble a child's knitted cap. The attempt to lend permanence to fleeting childhood experiences is obvious in the making of these bowls. Not only does Bauer want to somehow claim the essence and spirit of a maternal figure with the doily imprints in his work, he also wants to set his precious childhood memories in stone. Transgressing and exploring preconceived notions about materials fits in with Bauer's philosophy.

"My mother would challenge the idea of ideas. Reality is only what people agree on. There are a lot of spaces in reality where, if you don't agree upon set ideas and notions, you find another dimension."

It is this other dimension that Bauer expresses. It's a dimension that is so beautiful and so honest that it becomes convincing. His bowls are not merely ornamental and decorative, they capture a part of Bauer's journey to reclaim lost love and happiness.

"For me, the best way to make a connection with people is to create art that expresses something you feel. My work has been an exercise in alleviating suffering. If I feel my creation, and others feel it, then a bond is formed between us."