Rafael Molina-Rodriguez (Rafael Molina-Rodriguez) on sat 6 dec 97
Michael :
What's going on here? I think you've mistaken someone else's reply for
one of mine (You didn't include the original sender's message with your
reply). My short term memory is going bad, but I don't remember replying
to Louis' Photo Credit...post. I even checked my e-mail out box to make
sure. Incidentally, I agreed with most of what he said and thought he
could have carried his argument further.
>Over the last couple of years while I've been subscribed to Clayart, I
>have noted your signature on many an insightful and informative
>posting.
I appreciate your compliment about my contribution to the list. After being
assiduously and earnestly involved with clay for about sixteen years I
feel I have a broad experience with ceramic materials and processes to
share with people.
>This last one with regard to photo credit, however, seems to be the
>product of one of your periodic snits.
I think "periodic snits" is a fair way to describe a few of my posts. I,
unfortunately, lost my temper on a few occasions.
Although, I've taught at the university and college level for the last seven
and one half years I never felt comfortable with being considered a
"scholar and a gentleman." A non-conformist, gadfly, iconoclast, and
independant thinker are more in line with how I view myself.
>A worthy experession of the Christmas Spirit, should it sieze you.
Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo to everyone on the list.
Rafael
"A child may ask when our strange epoch passes,
During a history lesson. 'Please, Sir, what's
An intellectual of the middle classes?
Is he a maker of ceramic pots...'
W.H. Auden, Letter to Lord Byron, 1937 (W.H. Auden and Louis
Macniece, Letters from Iceland, 1937, page 201.)
This quote is from Edmund de Waal's article "Toward a Double
Standard?" in the November/December 1997 issue of Crafts. It is a an
excerpt from his new biography of Bernard Leach. It is described as
"critical look" at Leach. I guess my friend and fellow Clayarter John Britt
will have some company in his Leach bashing ;-).
I'm always fascinated by the extreme responses to Leach. Many, as I
do, consider him a venerated master who revived a beautiful tradition of
individual handcrafted pottery and there are others who pejoritively
describe him as just a maker of pottery.
>>> Michael McDowell 12/04/97
11:17am >>>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
------------------
Rafael -
Over the last couple of years while I've been subscribed to Clayart, I
have
noted your signature on many an insightful and informative posting. This
last one with regard to photo credit, however, seems to be the product
of
one of your periodic snits.
I gather your point is that no one deserves credit if everyone is not
credited, and I don't entirely disagree with you. Our society is in general
too ready to withold respect, recognition and appreciation from the
people
and things of which it is composed. If each of us who feels thus slighted
responds by slighting others in turn, that condition will never improve.
Far from seeking an "exalted position in society", my purpose in pursing
recognition through submission to national exhibitions and competitions is
to someday be able earn even minimum wage for the hours I devote to
my clay
work. I know that my photographer is in a similar position, and can well
use any credits he gets for the publication of his work to build his
portfolio and reputation.
All that aside, speaking as one who earned his way through
undergraduate
school pumping gas & patching flats. If you have experienced
noteworthy
performance from such a person, why don't you consider dashing off a
letter
of commendation to their employer? I can tell you from experience it will
be valuable & much appreciated; A worthy experession of the Christmas
Spirit, should it sieze you.
Michael McDowell
Whatcom County, WA USA
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