Howard Jacobson on sat 12 jun 99
Donn Buchfinck wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> YOU WROTE::::""Chris - in Carolina -
>
> I am sorry, but this just doesn't make sense to me.
>
> The general public is not a stupid herd of swine. Things sell because they
> are well designed, well priced and fill a need.
>
> Did you buy terrible equipment for your studio or did you buy the best you
> could afford? How about your home? Is it full of badly designed, poorly made
> stuff or did you try to find suitable well made furnishings? Is everything
> hand made or did you buy some manufactured products? Well, thank goodness
> someone was manufacturing well-made stuff you could afford.
>
> Since when does talent need humility???? NEVER.
>
> Sensitive? - - - gosh you haven't met some of the talented people I have
> because a lot of them are temper mental or socially impaired.... Their work is
> what speaks and can move you to tears.
>
> The fiction of the poor but humble crafts person toiling away in goodness and
> truth is just that - fiction. Their work is no better or worse than anyone
> else just because it's not popular or commercial. The fact that no one buys
> it does not automatically mean that it is good.
> Look at the Post It Note - hardly a work of art but it is perfectly designed,
> reasonably priced, readily availble and sells like crazy. You could put
> homemade glue on hand made paper but it would not necessarily be a better
> product.
> Chris - in Carolina - still struggling with that glaze - aarrgghh - I hate
> Testing and the chemistry gods aren't too thrilled with me either.""
>
> What world do you live in, not the same one I live in, and you must get
> into those good craft fairs, not the ones I've been to in the real world.
> You know the ones where I have to look at the rows of glass artists making
> stuff that all looks alike and sells and they make a lot of money. The
> people who churn out the stuff to sell with no thought about the details that
> could make it a better pot, just because it would take a little longer. The
> stuff that is beginning to make it's way into the market place that is mass
> produced bisqware and then decorated, with a hand made stamp on it. And
> badly decorated at that. lotion dispenser bottles and row upon row of rutile
> blue glazed pots.
> hey I like rutile blue, but not a whole booth of it.
> slock sells in our society
> this is why when you give the people the chance to have good schools or a cut
> in their property taxes they will sacrifice up the schools to their short
> sidedness.
> the people in out society are a herd of something, the yuppie attitude of
> the 80's has mutated into something even worse in the next generation, the
> we can save the world attitude has turned to we are going to conquer the
> world attitude. Skip the world can be saved phase, just go right into the
> pillage phase.
> The only good thing about this is that the people who have money have sold
> out, or sold upward, or bought in, what ever you want to call it, and they
> are tired of the plastic mass produced item and are looking for something
> handmade and warm.
> there is hope for us potters, we can give them this. And gouge them also.
>
> also the post it note was made as an in house product at 3-m corp
> the person who made it ran into problems with his superiors because they
> wondered about an adhesive that didn't hold that well. And he made some up
> for himself and his friends and the momentum caught on from there.
>
> and as to bad stuff, just walk into a home depot and you will be amazed at
> the stuff they sell. The company did 30 billion in business last year, and
> they do it selling not that great of stuff, and piss poor service.
> here is the trick about the public in the USA.
> they want to think they are getting a deal, a discount, something for free
> for a person to be a winner someone has to be a loser
> and a majority will take the better price over the better product any day.
> it's the people who want quality over the deal are the ones I want to deal
> with.
>
> Got a go work on those pots for those shows
>
> Donn Buchfinck
> San Francisco
I am tagging this to what I hope is the last thread on this subject.
I am Jake Jacobson the curator for RENDEZVOUS 97/98 AND 99.
It is without doubt that I feel that the circumstances regarding this thread is
based (unfortunately) upon the Ceramics Monthly article regarding the works of
Bobby Silverman.
If we live by Ceramics Monthly as our sole being and creative benefactor are we
not giving up ourselves as artists and thus perpetuating the myth that if it is
in CM it is art and good and if it is not in CM it is inferior; I think not.
I feel that the rebuttals have become personal and vindictive thus negating any
consequence of either sides finding vilification. Clay is another plastic
material and what you make of it is within your own realm and personal
satisfaction. If you are swayed by CM then your creative realm is every 30 days
except over summer when you have a dry spell.
I have exhibited the works of both artists and find they both bring to the
audience a conscious view point for one's consideration as to the FUNCTION of
CLAY.
Clay, ceramics, or whatever you may call it is not about how it functions as a
utilitarian object or as a sculptural object but how you, as the artist, are
excited as its being.
Jake Jacobson
Professor of Art (Ceramics)
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