primalmommy on thu 12 apr 07
I keep sending this email to clayart but it's not arriving, so here goes
again.
I have posted pix of a few pots from our wood firing -- mine, Patrick
Green's and Jonathan Smigel's -- on my website and at my blog. I also
have a "crits please" link for a bunch of ewers/cruets I'm loading into
a bisque today. None are earth sahking, but I am looking for "pursue
more like this" and "don't waste your time with more of those" feedback.
I'll post results on my blog.
Last night I put a few ^6 reduction ewers on my blog, but scroll down
for woodies -- and they continue onto the next page. If you keep going
back you'll find pix of the kiln as well.
Loading a salt today, firing tomorrow. My mid program review is Friday
the 13th, yikes.
Yours
Kelly in Ohio, sick of snow on the forsythia
http://www.primalpotter.com
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David Hendley on thu 12 apr 07
My God Kelly, what are they doing to you at graduate school?!
Please, please, please, not more ewers or cruets.
Woodfired, no less.
These pots make it look like you have joined the ranks of the
hundreds of graduate students making derivative-looking pots
copying the fashionable style of the moment.
I would rather see a teapot with faces on it or a glazed tofu press
with press molded feet. They are honest Primal Kelly pots.
I am purposely exaggerating and being blunt, Kelly,
1. because I know you can take it,
2. to counter whatever it is you are getting at school to prompt
you make these things,
3. to 'stir the pot' and entice comments from others.
Best wishes,
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
david(at)farmpots(dot)com
http://www.farmpots.com
----- Original Message -----
> I have posted pix of a few pots from our wood firing -- mine, Patrick
> Green's and Jonathan Smigel's -- on my website and at my blog. I also
> have a "crits please" link for a bunch of ewers/cruets I'm loading into
> a bisque today. None are earth sahking, but I am looking for "pursue
> more like this" and "don't waste your time with more of those" feedback.
> I'll post results on my blog.
Lee Love on fri 13 apr 07
On 4/13/07, David Hendley wrote:
> My God Kelly, what are they doing to you at graduate school?!
> Please, please, please, not more ewers or cruets.
David, This is the only criticism she asked us to avoid.
> I would rather see a teapot with faces on it or a glazed tofu press
> with press molded feet. They are honest Primal Kelly pots.
Any form can be made original. Folks have been doing it for
thousands of years with tea bowls. So, it isn't necessary to avoid
a form simply because it is "popular."
What I would like to see in PM's cruets is the same as what
Hamada told Voulkos about Voulkos's pots: "You should let the clay
work for you a little bit."
But, I though PM asked for feedback on the unbisqued forms. I
haven't been able to find them at her pages yet.
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
http://potters.blogspot.com/
"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." -
Henry David Thoreau
"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi
Dannon Rhudy on fri 13 apr 07
Kelly, I looked at the work. I read David's comments, too.
I can see where he is coming from, and of course it is true
that students are sometimes herded toward a "trendy" look.
However, I'm not interested in that. This is your first year
of grad school, and when I look at the work you've posted
here, I see something else. I see that you have, in spite of
your doubts, learned a lot this past two terms about handling
clay. It doesn't matter to me what the work looks like right
now - that will change to a greater or lesser degree, and more
quickly than you imagine. What I like when I look is that the
work has a lighter look - literally. Your previous work was
a bit heavy to LOOK at - I don't know if it felt heavy to lift.
What seems important is your willingness to try things you
weren't trying before, and your ability to assimilate information.
What you do with that information is not yet known - not to
you, nor to anyone. It seems important to me that students
at all levels should absorb everything that they can absorb.
Like learning scales, like learning different lines for drawing,
like reading. Let enough stuff in, and when you start really
aiming at some specific work of your own, you'll be able to
do it. I have no fear at all that you'll end up a copy cat of
other(s) work. In the short term it doesn't matter. If you were
learning to draw, I would expect you to look at and do your best
to replicate the lines and gestures of all the greats who came before
you, from Botticelli and Leonardo to Jim Dine. Not to become a
great copyist, but to know how to make a line that says what you
want to say. Same with clay. Get all the information you can, and
when you are ready to say something, you'll be able to say it.
regards
Dannon Rhudy
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