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tom marsh (1934-1991) article cm

updated sun 8 jul 07

 

Helen Bates on fri 6 jul 07


On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 14:48:21 -0500, Lee Love wrote:

> I don't deserve such good fortune. But I bought CM Jan and
>Feb 1992 off of Ebay. It is the two part Autobiography by Tatsuzo
>Shimaoka. I was happy to see the article on Tom Marsh in CM Feb
>'92, page 10 under UpFront.

Two "hits" on a web search for Tom Marsh:
http://www.umt.edu/montanamuseum/ceramic/martin4.htm
http://special.library.louisville.edu/display-collection.asp?ID=16

Helen

Lee Love on fri 6 jul 07


I don't deserve such good fortune. But I bought CM Jan and
Feb 1992 off of Ebay. It is the two part Autobiography by Tatsuzo
Shimaoka. I was happy to see the article on Tom Marsh in CM Feb
'92, page 10 under UpFront. Someone else wrote the article, but
they quote Wendell Berry speaking about Tom's work. It affirms, for
me, why materials and process are so important:

" Tom Marsh's work is extraordinary. But I think that his
extraordinariness is not, in the usual sense, a part of his ambition.
It is the result, simply, of devotion to his discipline and materials,
not the result of any heat in the Artistic Immortality Sweepstakes.
By practicing a potentially usable art and by insisting on its
usability, and the commonness and local peculiarity of his materials,
he points it toward the older, finer, healthier sort of artistic
success: that such excellent workmanship, such beauty and
distinction, might again become ordinary.

"These pots and cups and bowls are not busy calling
attention to themselves as 'art objects.' Their preferred habitat is
a kitchen, not a museum. They invite use. They are not just viewed.
Viewing, by itself, will misunderstand them--just as, by itself, it
will misunderstand the food."

--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
http://mashikopots.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

Lee Love on fri 6 jul 07


I don't deserve such good fortune. But I bought CM Jan and
Feb 1992 off of Ebay. It is the two part Autobiography by Tatsuzo
Shimaoka. I was happy to see the article on Tom Marsh in CM Feb
'92, page 10 under UpFront. Someone else wrote the article, but
they quote Wendell Berry speaking about Tom's work. It affirms, for
me, why materials and process are so important:

" Tom Marsh's work is extraordinary. But I think that his
extraordinariness is not, in the usual sense, a part of his ambition.
It is the result, simply, of devotion to his discipline and materials,
not the result of any heat in the Artistic Immortality Sweepstakes.
By practicing a potentially usable art and by insisting on its
usability, and the commonness and local peculiarity of his materials,
he points it toward the older, finer, healthier sort of artistic
success: that such excellent workmanship, such beauty and
distinction, might again become ordinary.

"These pots and cups and bowls are not busy calling
attention to themselves as 'art objects.' Their preferred habitat is
a kitchen, not a museum. They invite use. They are not just viewed.
Viewing, by itself, will misunderstand them--just as, by itself, it
will misunderstand the food."

--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
http://mashikopots.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