Lili Krakowski on tue 17 apr 07
Lee writes:
"The whole point of craft for modern people is to get back
in touch with the hand work humans have always done. It is a way to
break out of the cookie mold........
"Because we are educated, we have responsibilities to the work. We
can't fain country bumpkiness.....
The [artist's] statement is simply a way to help folks understand what we
are trying to do. Leach's writings had a much greater impact than his
actual work did."
Well, Lee, we are antipodal again.
I have no more idea what the "whole point of craft" is than what the whole
point of life is..
(As religious belief is a banned topic, I will skip discussion here...)
Nor do I see why /how anyone who gardens, sews, cooks, fixes things around
the house, tunes up the car, and like that needs to take up pottery to learn
about hand-work. Many people take up a craft because it feeds a part of
their soul their
OTHER activities don't.
I once had a group of nurses in one class...and I remember
talking to these magical women, who did things I could never dream of doing,
and they said for them the joy of clay was that nothing depended on it...if
a pot did
not turn out right, well, no matter.... They could relax and "go with the
flow"
and do something with nothing at stake except the joy of doing it....Quite a
far
cry from the ongoing anxiety of the Neo-Nate ICU!
I looked up "bum[p]kin" in my "Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology" and
the word apparently was an insult to Dutchmen and comes from the Dutch for
"little tree" (Rogier, please opine!) A bumkin is a country lout...which
comes..well go
look it up yourselves! Point being that who defines educated? (Again I see
Academia's nose sticking into the kiln shed)
Knowledge is knowledge. Classifying knowledge, sorting it into hierarchies
is a snobbish, ugly, thing.Who calls a farmer (bumpkin to you, Lee) less
educated than a college
professor? He does not know the same things, but he knows an awful
awful lot of impressive stuff. In the age of the Internet it is ever
clearer that knowledge is knowledge....for some it is the dative in Coptic,
for some how to achieve temmoku,
for others how to train a reindeer to pull a sled, and for others yet when
the paddy is
right to start planting rice!
There was a discussion sometime back about the proper way to shoot a
squirrel. I do not remember which of our ladies --was it Joyce, or Dannon,
or Elizabeth?--said you do not shoot the squirrel, you clip the branch
above the one where supper is sitting, split off the bark, which
conks the beastie, knocks it off the tree and lands it in
the cookpot! Knowing how to use a long-rifle certainly is a skill equal
to,
more useful than knowing how use an oxyprobe!
Why does my un-related schooling give me a different responsibility to clay,
than that one of your neighbors has? Why does he not have a greater
responsibility
than I, since he probably was raised in clay from childhood?
When I plead for a return to clay as a non Academic, non-verbal, world, I do
so because clay once was a level playing field, now being turned into
a lumpy bumpy grumpy obstacle course.
Anyone wanting to write about clay can , and Ceramics Monthly's
"Comments" and "Letters"
remain excellent displays of potters' writing skills. What I protest is
the DEMAND that those involved in non-verbal skills
should be REQUIRED to use words
about it. It is the demand for an ancillary, unrelated skill for acceptance
within
another that bugs me.
And if people need explanations to understand "what we are trying to do" it
seems to me we are doing it badly! (What exactly am I trying to do when I
plant
lettuce, or make a stew? How does that differ from making a cereal bowl?)
As to Leach's writing...well..it seems to me his sense of self-promotion
made him famous, and he chose a good time .Marguerite
Wildenhain's books are far more interesting to me, and better written.
PS All things considered, may I live in a Lasagna pan, rather
than a cookie mold?
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
mcdenis on tue 17 apr 07
The world, need I say, is big enough for bumkins and blowhards. Write
whatever you please. Those that read will either genuflect or stall at the
first three words.
Denis R
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lili Krakowski"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 9:27 AM
Subject: Bumkins, cookie molds/ was flaws and flies
> Lee writes:
>
> "The whole point of craft for modern people is to get back
> in touch with the hand work humans have always done. It is a way to
> break out of the cookie mold........
>
> "Because we are educated, we have responsibilities to the work. We
> can't fain country bumpkiness.....
>
> The [artist's] statement is simply a way to help folks understand what we
> are trying to do. Leach's writings had a much greater impact than his
> actual work did."
>
> Well, Lee, we are antipodal again.
>
> I have no more idea what the "whole point of craft" is than what the whole
> point of life is..
> (As religious belief is a banned topic, I will skip discussion here...)
>
> Nor do I see why /how anyone who gardens, sews, cooks, fixes things
> around
> the house, tunes up the car, and like that needs to take up pottery to
> learn
> about hand-work. Many people take up a craft because it feeds a part of
> their soul their
> OTHER activities don't.
>
> I once had a group of nurses in one class...and I remember
> talking to these magical women, who did things I could never dream of
> doing,
> and they said for them the joy of clay was that nothing depended on
> it...if
> a pot did
> not turn out right, well, no matter.... They could relax and "go with the
> flow"
> and do something with nothing at stake except the joy of doing it....Quite
> a
> far
> cry from the ongoing anxiety of the Neo-Nate ICU!
>
> I looked up "bum[p]kin" in my "Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology"
> and
> the word apparently was an insult to Dutchmen and comes from the Dutch for
> "little tree" (Rogier, please opine!) A bumkin is a country lout...which
> comes..well go
> look it up yourselves! Point being that who defines educated? (Again I
> see
> Academia's nose sticking into the kiln shed)
>
> Knowledge is knowledge. Classifying knowledge, sorting it into
> hierarchies
> is a snobbish, ugly, thing.Who calls a farmer (bumpkin to you, Lee) less
> educated than a college
> professor? He does not know the same things, but he knows an awful
> awful lot of impressive stuff. In the age of the Internet it is ever
> clearer that knowledge is knowledge....for some it is the dative in
> Coptic,
> for some how to achieve temmoku,
> for others how to train a reindeer to pull a sled, and for others yet when
> the paddy is
> right to start planting rice!
>
> There was a discussion sometime back about the proper way to shoot a
> squirrel. I do not remember which of our ladies --was it Joyce, or
> Dannon,
> or Elizabeth?--said you do not shoot the squirrel, you clip the branch
> above the one where supper is sitting, split off the bark, which
> conks the beastie, knocks it off the tree and lands it in
> the cookpot! Knowing how to use a long-rifle certainly is a skill equal
> to,
> more useful than knowing how use an oxyprobe!
>
> Why does my un-related schooling give me a different responsibility to
> clay,
> than that one of your neighbors has? Why does he not have a greater
> responsibility
> than I, since he probably was raised in clay from childhood?
>
> When I plead for a return to clay as a non Academic, non-verbal, world, I
> do
> so because clay once was a level playing field, now being turned into
> a lumpy bumpy grumpy obstacle course.
>
> Anyone wanting to write about clay can , and Ceramics Monthly's
> "Comments" and "Letters"
> remain excellent displays of potters' writing skills. What I protest is
> the DEMAND that those involved in non-verbal skills
> should be REQUIRED to use words
> about it. It is the demand for an ancillary, unrelated skill for
> acceptance
> within
> another that bugs me.
>
>
> And if people need explanations to understand "what we are trying to do"
> it
> seems to me we are doing it badly! (What exactly am I trying to do when I
> plant
> lettuce, or make a stew? How does that differ from making a cereal bowl?)
>
>
> As to Leach's writing...well..it seems to me his sense of self-promotion
> made him famous, and he chose a good time .Marguerite
> Wildenhain's books are far more interesting to me, and better written.
>
> PS All things considered, may I live in a Lasagna pan, rather
> than a cookie mold?
> Lili Krakowski
> Be of good courage
>
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