Jeff Lawrence on fri 22 may 98
Hello,
Several of us have asserted here the following:
"Never donate seconds!"
I reject this point of view as overcategorical and hyperpolarized. And only
mostly because I donated seconds to the local empty bowls project. They
were low on donations and the pieces were servicable. Plus, I shrewdly did
not sign them, and extracted a promise of anonymity.
Worst case scenario: they expend the energy to throw them out.
Best case scenario: they make $30 more than otherwise.
So, on a practical level, I see no harm done by my evident transgression.
On a non-practical level, there is food here for rumination. Personally, I
have never made anything that was perfect. Every piece I've ever produced
had something I'd change if I could. Most people have trouble seeing my
beefs at all, even when I point it out, or don't see them as flaws. But I
know I've missed my ideal by just that much.
The "seconds" notion is pretty arbitrary. The difference between first and
second is not as absolute as the terminology suggests -- it is an analog
spectrum, not a discrete jump. In "The Potters Challenge" Bernard Leach
suggests that such a dichotomy is the curse of sophisticated awareness, and
that the only way to pots with life is to transcend it, learning to
celebrate the flaws as testimony to the vagaries of the process.
When you produce vagary-laden ware as consistently as I do, it is
comforting to have a big dog saying it is okay...
naively yours in hapless mediocrity,
Jeff Lawrence
jml@sundagger.com
Sun Dagger Design
Rt. 1 Box 394L
Espanola, NM 87532
vox/fax 505-753-5913
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