Kelly Savino on sat 13 sep 08
>From: Trabka, J Christian [Christian.Trabka@dematic.com]
>Sent: 9/13/2008 4:12:30 PM
>To: primalmommy@mail2ohio.com;tony.clennell@gmail.com
>Subject: Re: Throwing Pots and Graduate School
>
>Kelly & Tony,
>Both of you were proficient potters prior to going for your current
degree. In
>this light I expect that if you were asked to produce form "X" by an
outside
>source, the professor, it may take a little time to create the first
one but
>you would be easily able to not only make the second but the twentieth.
With
>this in mind, if you are a relatively proficient potter, does graduate
school
>help you to throw "better" and if so, how?
>Chris
>You can answer privately or on CLAYART, I am "traveling" again with no
studio,
>no clay.
I think Tony and I have had very different grad school experiences, but
I can try to answer from my experience.
In my first weeks as a grad student, I was asked to choose, reproduce,
and then reinterpret a piece form ancient history.
I was still a bit cocky, at that point, and figured it would be a piece
of cake. I sat down, threw the parts of an Anatolian jug, assembled it,
and presented it for applause.
Unfortunately, my eye was not sufficiently fine-tuned to be able to see
the differences in proportion and line between my pot and the image of
the original. It took me several revisions and some patient coaching
from my prof to finally make one that "nailed it".
And since the jug I chose was a funerary urn, and not functional, my
"revision" was to try to make it pour well. That took several
incarnations as well, and in the end, the piece I made that functioned
the best had lost the charm of the original.
It was all a learning experience, though. After that initial assignment,
very little of my instruction was about remaking a form in the same
way... it was always about fine tuning, improving, tweaking certain
details when revising after crits. Maybe this says somethign abotu my
contrariness, but by the end of the experience the only forms I was
really possessed with were the ones I had been discouraged from pursuing
;0)
Or maybe, of the paths I had been advised not to travel, (a process
which no doubt weeded out a lot of dead ends), just a few projects meant
enough to me that I had to follow them, and counsel be damned.
I wouldn't say I necessarily throw better.. my hands have been pretty
much able to make whatever I asked of them. Instead, I think I am able
to SEE better -- what's wrong when something isn't working, and what
seems worth making.
A byproduct of that training is that not all 500 of the 500
cups/bowls/plates/etc. in Lark Books look good to me.. as time passes, I
find I flip through a lot of pages to find one I like. Something can be
learned form most work, and largely it's more about "knowing what I
like" rather than good vs. bad, but my "inner crit" seems to be on, now,
full time. A mixed blessing, that.
Yours
Kelly in Ohio... working on a wholesale commission, despite years of
clayart cautionary tales and two-by-four stories. Momma needs a new pair
of burners...
Lee Love on sat 13 sep 08
From: Trabka, J Christian [Christian.Trabka@dematic.com]
Sent: 9/13/2008 4:12:30 PM
>>Kelly & Tony,
>>Both of you were proficient potters prior to going for your current
> degree. In
>>this light I expect that if you were asked to produce form "X" by an
> outside
>>source, the professor, it may take a little time to create the first
>you would be easily able to not only make the second but the twentieth.
Chris,
Excuse me for butting in....
From what I can see, studio arts programs don't focus on too much
on throwing exact copies. The focus is more on individual work
and expression. That is what folks have told me in Japan, who have
came to do traditional apprenticeships out of studio arts programs.
I have seen them struggle to make exact copies at the craftsmen's
level.
I remember MacKenzie talking about his experience being similar
in Cornwall. In the beginning, what they thought were copies of what
they were told to make did not come up the the standards of the
craftsman William Marshall.
There is a distinct difference in Japan between master craftsmen
and studio artists. The craftsmen can pot circles around college
trained potters, being able to copy anything exactly, just by looking
at the form. But I also watched these master craftsmen trying to
make original decorations on their pots, and it was very difficult for
them to do so.
The two kinds of training are not exclusive and compliment each other.
--
Lee Love in Minneapolis
http://heartclay.blogspot.com/
http://mashikopots.blogspot.com/
http://claycraft.blogspot.com/
"Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." --Rumi
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