LeeU

My all time favorite-John Baymore. June 16-19 John Baymore (is) “Headed off to South Korea ...in a week for an exhibition, then (the vessel with the neck will go) into a public collection. The container is my single favorite piece of all things made of clay that I have seen to date. John says " It is not done yet. Next it gets overglaze enamels."

I'm not sure that a contemporaneous period, or movement, is possible to be named and categorized while still unfolding and in motion. History, to me, is an amalgam of hindsight with a mix of alleged and actual facts shoring it up. It is always a bit twisted---sometimes very, very twisted. I don't see art history as being exempt from the ways in which history (formed from records, opinions & observations, critiques, all kinds of analysis, supposition, explanations, and relational interpretations) may be, and has been, "used" as a political, cultural, socioeconomic, even religious, dynamic that affects entire populations and subgroups, sometimes quite negatively (think post-Soviet actionist art). There are deep roots and reasons why the general U.S. population was initially disgusted with and fearful of the emergence of "abstract" art. People had to be taught how to be "the viewer", how to enter a new visual reality, how to participate in the dialogue, how to "appreciate" what made no sense to them. Once history has blessed an art movement/period with the names of the identified heroes and generated enough money to give it credence, even the most impenetrable or nonsensical works, the most blatantly naked emperors, get to assertively confound us with challenges to our discernment of what is art and what is artifice. Most of us can't tell 'em apart, but once we slap a label on the period or movement in question, it's pretty well settled. One hopes that there is a strong core of intelligence and benign creativity when articulating an art movement or period and that art historians may bless us with insights and context, and not leave us in the dark (think of Ai Weiwei and the urn--you have to understand it to understand it). Yep.

And they are lookin' good! Nice and simple, no jarring distractions, conveys the info just as it should! Hope building the webite is at least a little bit fun--I loved doing mine even though I have neglected it lately.

I'd vote for this query to be a new Qotw -it has a beat, you can dance to it.

Yep...when we invite you for dinner, after you are seated we may then say, "Here, eat, then get the hell out." That's how you know we like you! (Sorry for veering off-topic!)

My favorite activities during my BFA ceramics years (long ago) were the hands-on making of clay bodies and glazes. I remember naught now (minor brain damage), but I was quite good at it and being in the studio with great instructors and serious co-students/clay artists turned me on to a life-nurturing process when I was on the verge of quitting "big time". I remember one graduate student who was working in a style similar to Jun Kaneko (this was in the early '80s) and seeing her up on the ladder over this enormous form--it took up the entire gas kiln, set sideways--was such an inspiration, it literally helped me to stay put. So in terms of wishing to have had more training in a particular ceramic skill, I have to say I wish I had more longevity with being able to practice and perform the basics, and then on to the more advanced, more creative, more chemistry-rooted aspects of making clay and glazes. I'd wanna become glazenerd!!

Moving on from glazing bisque to finishing the edges/surfaces of greenware. When I do this I pretend I have no eyesight so I can feel my pieces; if they feel satisfying, they get to live; if I am not enchanted or intrigued when holding them, they gotta go. (Oh good grief--I have a cultural appropriation (incorrectly called a waving lucky cat -Google "maneki-neko") on my workbench!! And there it will stay.)

I want to say something about language. It is essentially ingrained & inherited from how and where and with whom we grew up and hung out with. When someone like me (old school NY street life) says things like "look, pal", or a southern waitress calls me "sweetie or dearie", we are not name-calling. It is just habitual expressiveness that has not been willfully changed. I used to say "F- this and F-that, you M'rFk'r (which is now more commonly expressed as mofo--go figure!) repeatedly, every sentence, non-stop. And I could not stop--had no reason to, and then when I did have a reason to, it was rough. I had to be taught how to change my world view, my stance in the world, and my mouth. I had to--painfully, I might add--practice, practice, practice, literally for years until I could speak like a decent mainstream person in a variety of settings and communities. Most of us have a working brain-it is not about having the smarts, even tho using certain language can make one look stupid, or aggressive, etc.. The waitress saying "Can I get you more coffee sweetie" and me saying "Look, sister, I'm not your sweetie" are really the same thing. Except it sets us worlds apart (like different cultures around the globe) , and maybe at odds with each other, as I think she's of low intelligence and she thinks I'm a biker's broad. So with all due respect to everyone---I see nothing in this thread that is less than civil. I hope that as group members, we are not being required by moderators to become hyper-vigilent and super-sensitive about what we say or how we say it (or how Lee writes stuff-which is quite hard to reign in from my natural style-seriously). I hope there is some reasonable wiggle-room, so we can be "who we are". If someone is offended, I trust they can speak up for themselves and with private messaging, we can usually work it out. If it is perceived as offensive and ongoing, we can report it to a moderator and they can handle it politely and privately. When it can't be worked out, either the offender or the offended will leave the group. Isn't it partly how things were said (and badly misinterpreted, in my opinion) that provoked the loss of some great foundational members/mentors/experts not all that long ago? Compassion & respect are as perceived, as delivered and as received; they not always clear absolutes that are identifiable by all as such, on both the delivering and receiving ends. Lee's rant of the day-or, to put it in a more paletable form, just some food for thought.

Read the notice about the Marketplace...sounds WONDERFUL! Much needed. But what does PM mean? Never mind--it is spelled out in this version (was not in the pop up).

Assuming the body/brain hold steady I plan on doing larger, more sculptural pieces, that still offer an element of functionality-I love containers and bases for things. My life has taken so many twists & turns-some fairly unpleasant- that the very notion of "seeing myself" in the future is centered on still being around and being grateful for it.

Speaking of photography, what is on my workbench at the moment are 3 bins of pieces from a recent wood firing that need to be shot and inventoried, plus about half of a backlog of some bisque smalls that still need to be glazed.