Jeff Longtin on sun 4 sep 11
James,
Why do you continue to play the victim card? (It puzzles me to no end.)
You make regular contributions to Clayart, you're a member of the clay
community...what's the problem?
My annoyance was not that you suggested that my Braille cups are not
unique, I've been hearing that since I introduced them in 1997, rather that=
your
posting had a "I'm going to prove your wrong." tone behind it.
The main reason I found offense was simply the fact that your point,
"You're not unique." seems pointless. It doesn't really matter if I think I=
'm
unique or if you think I'm not.
...or does it?
In trying to minimize Diana John posted the rhetorical comment, "Why do so
many on Clayart want to claim to be original/the first?"
To which I ask, why do so many on Clayart seek to minimize the efforts of
others?
If you think you're original...god love ya. If you think you're the
first...all the power to ya. What purpose is served by denigrating each ot=
her?
take care
Jeff Longtin
in Minneapolis
John Britt on sun 4 sep 11
Thanks Mike,
Nice Mike,
Also, I recall a Clayart person who did a bit of cone 6 reduction:
Marcia Selsor on sat 27 jul 02
I have fired ^6 reduction for over 20 years and have achieved tenmoku,=3D20=
=3D
celedons, copper reds, iron reds, etc. Usually reduce heavier for an=3D20
hour when the cone is going. Reduce lightly from ^010 for copper reds=3D20
and throw a few sticks in as it cools for a couple of hours. All the=3D20
glazes are in the archives. Michael bailey is writing a book on cone 6=3D20=
=3D
reduction glazes.=3D20
Best wishes,=3D20
marcia selsor in Montana=3D20
it is raining!!!!=3D20
and then there was Michelle Lowe:
http://www.potters.org/subject55299.htm=3D20
John Britt
James Freeman on sun 4 sep 11
On Sun, Sep 4, 2011 at 6:06 AM, John Britt wrot=
=3D
e:
Also, I recall a Clayart person who did a bit of cone 6 reduction:
Marcia Selsor on sat 27 jul 02
I have fired ^6 reduction for over 20
A year or two ago, I wrote an article for Ceramics Monthly entitled "It's
all been done before...", borrowing the title from a line in a Barenaked
Ladies song.
Not long thereafter, I wrote a clayart post with a similar theme in respons=
=3D
e
to a thread which was ongoing at the time. I recall being excoriated for
making such an assertion, that there is indeed little that is "new under th=
=3D
e
sun", yet here we seem to have yet another case of simultaneous invention.
Here are a couple of small snippets from the article:
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D
Something has been troubling me for some time.
I am almost constantly coming up with ideas for new works, ceramic or
otherwise. My sketchbooks are full of yet to be realized forms, and scraps
of paper covered in quick and free sketches litter my desk and studio. As
time, energy, and skills permit, I am able to bring a few of these ideas to
fruition, transforming the vague sketch into something concrete, something
new and original, as yet unseen. Then darkness falls. Seemingly without
fail, while innocently perusing the dusty and mouldering pages of some
ancient tome, I find, there on a yellowed leaf, my pot. Though I conceived
the idea in a relative vacuum, the product of my own mind and hands, there
it is, taunting me; my pot, but made by other hands twenty or fifty or one
thousand years ago.
---
History is replete with examples of ideas and inventions appearing
simultaneously on opposite sides of the globe. The Nobel Prize for physics
has on numerous occasions been awarded to several scientists who had never
met nor communicated, but who nonetheless made the same discovery at the
same time. With billions of people on our proud but tiny planet, what are
the odds that any thought one has is truly unique? Do not fret over where a=
=3D
n
idea came from. Do not worry about whether someone had said or done
something similar. Cherish your ideas, your unique perspective, your unique
execution, and go forth boldly. Rather than wallowing under the bleak
thought in Ecclesiastes, it may perhaps be better to remember the words of
Ambrose Bierce: =3D93There is nothing new under the sun, but there are lots=
o=3D
f
old things we don't know.=3D94
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D
In "Whom gods destroy", one of my favorite Star Trek episodes, Marta, a
criminally insane green babe played by the stunning Yvonne Craig, has the
following conversation with Lord Garth:
Marta:
And I'm intelligent too. I write poetry, and I paint marvelous pictures.
And I am a wonderful dancer.
Garth:
Lies! All lies! You are the greatest liar I have ever met! Let me hear
one poem you've written.
Marta:
If you like.
Garth:
Gentlemen, courtesy for the performer:
Marta:
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? "Thou art more lovely and more
temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's leas=
=3D
e
hath all too soon..."
Garth:
You wrote that?
Marta:
Yesterday, as a matter of fact.
Garth:
It was written by an Earth man named Shakespeare, a long time ago!
Marta:
Which does not alter the fact that I wrote it again yesterday! I think it'=
=3D
s
one of my best poems, don't you?
All the best.
...James
James Freeman
"...outsider artists, caught in the bog of their own consciousness, too
preciously idiosyncratic to be taken seriously."
"All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should
not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed."
-Michel de Montaigne
http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesfreemanstudio/
http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com/resources
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