jrgpots Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 I have noticed each artist seems to have his/her style. I look at my stuff and don't see any hint of a personal style. How long does it take to develop a recognizable style and how did you do it? Jed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 Looking back mine came after about 5 years of lots of pots-the 1st few years I was all over the board then I would say about 1/2 way thru my art degree it just became my style-its been that way ever since. My feet are the same in 1976 as they are today almost with slight improvements now. I have seen many a potter learn there own style and its always a matter of time and clay -it just takes time and clay. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glazenerd Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 Jed: I looked through your gallery and was immediately aware of your influences and style. Obviously you are captivated by 18-19th century architecture, as well as native American tribal traditions. You under-estimate your point of view artistically. Glaze Nerd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerdry Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 I have been a hobby potter for over 6 years. Haven't made many final decisions yet except 1. I do not want to make my own glazes 2. I have found the type of mug handle I like best and make that one consistently 3. I am happy having a cacophonous pottery voice as THAT reflects who I am (I have lived in different countries, embraced different cultures, spoken different languages, and had several different careers). Experimenting is just far too much fun to give up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler Miller Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 Style is your mental state and expression of your artistic values as you create. There are conscious decisions you'll make about your work. Which forms you use, what clay body or glazes, or decorations. But those are all sort of superficial things and you'll probably make several changes to these over your lifetime. Skill and fashion are fleeting. What you actually make and how you make it are less important than the decisions you made to get there. What's going to unify your work is what you're thinking when you're making things with clay. It's something present in your first works and continues right up until the last pot you ever make comes out of the kiln. It's like the paintings of Van Gogh or Picasso. It doesn't matter what "period" you're looking at of Picasso's, you can tell it's him. From when he was a boy to the sculpture in Chicago. His mind's there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinks Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 To the tread of passing years" Learn to wait "– hope's slow fruition will cultivate your own style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Beller Diesel Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 Twyla Tharpe writes in "The Creative Habit," (On creative DNA) "Each of us is hard-wired a certain way. And that hard-wiring insinuates itself into our work. That's not a bad thing. Actually, it's what the world expects from you. We want our artists to take the mundane materials of our lives, run it through their imaginations and surprise us. If you are by nature a loner, a crusader, an outsider, a jester, a romantic, a melancholic, or any one of a dozen personalities, that quality will shine through in your work." I've made the observation that one's voice is like handwriting. It comes with practice, it changes over time and it's unique to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Campbell Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 i advise potters I meet to try absolutely everything ... ... every technique that catches your eye ... every glazing method ... every building method ... every firing method ... Do not limit your exposure to any area of pottery you can latch onto. TRY everything until you don't want to do anything but one particular type of pottery. Something will claim you. That point is the start of your style, but definitely not the end of experimentation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PRankin Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 i advise potters I meet to try absolutely everything ... ... every technique that catches your eye ... every glazing method ... every building method ... every firing method ... Do not limit your exposure to any area of pottery you can latch onto. TRY everything until you don't want to do anything but one particular type of pottery. Something will claim you. That point is the start of your style, but definitely not the end of experimentation. This describes me as well. Every...every...every, and then narrowing it down over the last few years to what "feels" like me, but I keep playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Fireborn Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 I have tired over 15 different clay bodies in 1.5 years of pottery. Pretty insane imo. I still don't know which one I like best. I just bought 50# of a new body today. AHHHH.. I have this picture in my head of what I want my pots to look like, I have yet to achieve that picture, but every day I get closer. I will probably spend all day tomorrow cleaning up the garage studio, then mixing 3 or 4 new batches of glazes based on some previous glazes, which will all be some variant of white or black glazes. I am still looking for the perfect white glaze. I am hoping since I made a body change that my current iteration of a glaze that I have been modifying for a while now will come out better. Only time will tell though. I feel like the harder I hope to find my style the more I get frustrated. Right now I just look for things that I like, and then I incorporate them more into my next work, and so forth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloan.quinn Posted December 22, 2015 Report Share Posted December 22, 2015 I feel like the harder I hope to find my style the more I get frustrated. Right now I just look for things that I like, and then I incorporate them more into my next work, and so forth. Do you like the pots you make? I do. That's all that's important (that you like them, not me.) Make the pots you like right now. Try to learn something from every one of them. Style is something that develops, not so much something that is found. Just keep your eyes open and keep experimenting. :-D (Seriously though, I like your pots.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Fireborn Posted December 22, 2015 Report Share Posted December 22, 2015 I feel like the harder I hope to find my style the more I get frustrated. Right now I just look for things that I like, and then I incorporate them more into my next work, and so forth. Do you like the pots you make? I do. That's all that's important (that you like them, not me.) Make the pots you like right now. Try to learn something from every one of them. Style is something that develops, not so much something that is found. Just keep your eyes open and keep experimenting. :-D (Seriously though, I like your pots.) Oh I love my forms, I am not so happy with my glazes. I love them when they come out nice, but I can't get consistent results. Which is why I haven't started selling pots yet. I will get there though. I am working on better glaze application process. Thanks for the nice words. I am sure my style will come out eventually. I am only a little under 2 years in and I already know the things I like and the things I want to get closer to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alabama Posted December 22, 2015 Report Share Posted December 22, 2015 Developing a style comes from time. Time spent on the wheel and time spent thru research. It's constantly changing, but when that "eureka" moment hits, you better remember what you did! Its easier for me to see an example then work towards the finished product. I can use any clay body, but I like red stoneware, with an opaque glaze. Look at lots of examples, and study all the parts of the vessels,ie, rim, neck, shoulders, body, form, handles, base or foot. Make a notebook, so ideas are readily available. Go to demonstrations, or take a class. Pick a style and make it your own. . It may be harder than it sounds, so start now. See ya, Alabama Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayaldridge Posted December 23, 2015 Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 This is the kind of discussion that I always enjoy, though I may not have anything useful to say. In my opinion, you can't avoid having a style, even though it may not be your own. I don't think it is necessarily dependent on skill, because I've seen fairly new potters doing stuff that, even if somewhat clumsy in execution, is still clearly driven by a personal vision, not something learned from a teacher or from a book. When I was a young potter, I was trying to be Bernard Leach, who, as it turns out, was not at all who I was interested in being. Then I moved on to trying to be Michael Cardew, which was even less likely to happen, but a little closer to what I would do when it was me and not some great teacher in charge of the stylistic decisions. There certainly is a danger that potters will be excessively influenced by the example of great teachers. I remember going to the Ann Arbor Street Fair many years ago. This was one of the premier shows in the country and attracted some of the very best artists. At that show I saw two highly skilled potters whose work was indistinguishable from John Glick's work. It was wonderful work, but it wasn't their own. The point I'm trying to make here is that we should try to be aware of our influences, and maybe judge our own efforts not just by the metric of "Do I like it?" but also by the "Is it too similar to the stuff other potters make?" I think this is one of those things you need to keep in mind if your goal is to make stuff that no one else is making. It helps bump you off the overly travelled path. On the other hand, sometimes I think potters can put too much emphasis on originality. For example, there are only a limited range of shapes that make good soup bowls. If you manage to come up with an entirely new shape for a soup bowl, it probably won't be much good as a soup bowl. Originality in the making of soup bowls will turn out to be a pretty subtle thing... John Glick did it with his use of complex surface design, with stamps, slips, and multiple glazes. I try to do it with quiet but complex glazes, and while my soup bowls are not as original as his, in my opinion, they are still a personal style that doesn't owe much to any great exemplar. Anyway, sorry about the excessive maundering, but this is the sort of thing I like to think about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Fireborn Posted December 23, 2015 Report Share Posted December 23, 2015 Ray, I found your post pretty interesting. I think there is only so much as far as forms you can make. I mean after all if you go to far away from something it becomes something else. However I think glazing is near unlimited. Every time I think I have looked at every type of pot glazed in all sorts of manners, I see a new potter with some new glaze work and I remember that there are infinite possibilities for glaze style. I think a lot of potters just do what they see is successful and kinda marry that with their own style as far as your regards to Glick above. Truly finding your own style is an adventure and I think its near impossible to do without a lot of pots created and a lot of test conducted. Even then, when you think you have something original, someone else will probably have something like it, but then if they do, its no worries because you created it and there will always be differences. It only takes a few brush strokes or a few glaze runs here and there to separate work drastically. I think in regards to the original post, when does developing a style start, I think it starts once your comfortable with your ability to create what you want to make without having to worry about the mechanics behind it. Then you can start creating your own forms and thinking about the glazes your going to apply while making the pot, instead of thinking about how to make the pot while your making it. I think this is when finding your style starts to happen, at least for me it has been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nancylee Posted January 2, 2016 Report Share Posted January 2, 2016 This is the kind of discussion that I always enjoy, though I may not have anything useful to say. In my opinion, you can't avoid having a style, even though it may not be your own. I don't think it is necessarily dependent on skill, because I've seen fairly new potters doing stuff that, even if somewhat clumsy in execution, is still clearly driven by a personal vision, not something learned from a teacher or from a book. When I was a young potter, I was trying to be Bernard Leach, who, as it turns out, was not at all who I was interested in being. Then I moved on to trying to be Michael Cardew, which was even less likely to happen, but a little closer to what I would do when it was me and not some great teacher in charge of the stylistic decisions. There certainly is a danger that potters will be excessively influenced by the example of great teachers. I remember going to the Ann Arbor Street Fair many years ago. This was one of the premier shows in the country and attracted some of the very best artists. At that show I saw two highly skilled potters whose work was indistinguishable from John Glick's work. It was wonderful work, but it wasn't their own. The point I'm trying to make here is that we should try to be aware of our influences, and maybe judge our own efforts not just by the metric of "Do I like it?" but also by the "Is it too similar to the stuff other potters make?" I think this is one of those things you need to keep in mind if your goal is to make stuff that no one else is making. It helps bump you off the overly travelled path. On the other hand, sometimes I think potters can put too much emphasis on originality. For example, there are only a limited range of shapes that make good soup bowls. If you manage to come up with an entirely new shape for a soup bowl, it probably won't be much good as a soup bowl. Originality in the making of soup bowls will turn out to be a pretty subtle thing... John Glick did it with his use of complex surface design, with stamps, slips, and multiple glazes. I try to do it with quiet but complex glazes, and while my soup bowls are not as original as his, in my opinion, they are still a personal style that doesn't owe much to any great exemplar. Anyway, sorry about the excessive maundering, but this is the sort of thing I like to think about. I love John Pollex, but have no idea how to get what he gets as far as color, so I am still muddling along after 5 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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