mel jacobson on sat 8 apr 00
I think Tom Wirt has hit a cord in the glass vs. clay
discussion.
Many of our Heros in ceramics have worked hard to make
it seem that what we make is not precious. Leech,
Yanagi, Mac Kenzie. I have heard the stories and have told
them over and over. `Use my work, it has function, don't put
it on the fireplace mantel. It is simple, everyday work, cheap
price, buy more if it breaks. Use it everyday. I am just an
unknown craftsman.`
I went through `American Craft` magazine this morning and almost
every gallery ad, story, article has a picture of a precious, made
for art, put it on the mantel piece of glass. Rich color, sculptural
forms, razzle dazzle. Put those next to a brown, dull, flat glazed
stoneware vase, and it does not make it hard to understand why
men, with a bit of jingle in their pocket, a new, contemporary
home of 400,000 snaps, with his bmw wants glass. It fits his
life style.
These folks are not hippies, dirty clothes, rope soled shoes.
It is the Armani suit crowd. They pay more for a suit than we
pay for a gas kiln. They collect `expensive stuff`.
If we, as potters, want a piece of that action, well, change must
be made. If you are not willing to reach a bit farther up the
the ladder, or educate your customers as to your value, well
then keep your yap shut.
Dale Chahuli and his Shrine Circus of glass show has changed
the face of glass sales in America. He blew in with those big
colored balls, and `pretty` overhead glass displays and smacked
the Porsche crowd off their collective feet. He is a HUCKSTER.
Say friends, it works. Try 5 hours in the Mall of America in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Plane loads of people coming from all over the world
to buy junk, bags of junk. Expensive bags of junk.
Look at the forms that Chahuli has made. Most are what glass
blowers learn the first year. He just makes more of it, and bigger.
Then piles it up to look like one unit. Look just past the glitz and
what have you got? Not much. But, it sells, just like Hamburger
Helper, it tastes like like dung, smells like dung, has nothing
in it, but earns General Mills BILLIONS.
Ask the `Dock Six` women if their colorful, bold fountains sell?
They smile all the way to the bank. If I told you the gross, you
would not believe me. They never think about Warren Mac Kenzie.
And they are in his 50 mile circle. And their basic pots are
great too, and they all sell. They work at it. When you go to
their shows, well, a lot of bmw's parked around their studio.
And they never say things like `anybody know where we can
get a cheap kiln, or free feldspar?` They just built a 100 cubic
foot car kiln. Have never loaded a kiln cold, it is always warm.
I think Wendy has a point.
Mel/MN
and i never pee my pants when wearing a blue suit. my dad
taught me how to use the fly thing. (hate getting pee on my hand
made italian leather loafers with the tassles.)
minnetonka, minnesota, u.s.a
http://www.pclink.com/melpots (website)
Lee Love on sun 9 apr 00
I appreciate functional glass. I don't see any conflict between glass and
pottery. And sometimes, fountains are nice too, if they aren't too
kitschy. :^) The are not so rare anymore, since pups have become easy to
find. I think most are overpriced. Some of my friends have made them out
of regular bowls that they add stones, gravel and a pump to. Saved
themselves a hundred or two.
There are some at the Kyohan Center here in Mashiko, that are
made in the form of a large storage jar forms (4 feet tall), with pocket
ledges on the sides. The water overflows the top of the jar and trickles
down the sides into a tray-like foot at the bottom.
We had a Cherry Blossom viewing party last night, next to the studio of a
glass blower. When we arrived in the kiln room, there were a couple dozen
blue yunome size glasses sitting on a towel on the table in the middle of
the room. Our pottery foreman had the glasses moved and "seconds" yunome
and mugs put in their place. But as the beer and sake bottles were
opened, we all gravitated to the glass yunome. To my great enjoyment, we
were all told to take our glass home as a momento. They were "seconds"
too. They are fluted at the bottom and are as lively as any ceramic pot
I've seen.
Afterwards, we all piled into 3 or 4 cars and traveled to the top of
Numato (sp.) -yama (yama is mountain.) The blossoms were beautiful in
the dark night. The sides of the road were filled with vendors and pink
lanterns near wear we parked, but as we traveled forward under the blossoms,
the stalls were replace by people drinking sake, listening to music and
singing on spread out blankets... The young people in our group went on
to a Karaoke bar. I went home with some left over sushi from the party to
share with my wife Jean, and our dog Taiko.
--
Lee Love
2858-2-2 , Nanai
Mashiko-machi
Tochigi-ken
321-4106
JAPAN
http://hachiko.com
Ikiru@kami.com
Terry Sullivan/Nottingham Center for the Arts on tue 11 apr 00
Ok Mel that's the gauntlet on the floor.
First off Dale Chihuly ( that is with a "y" ) is one of the most adventurous
artists working in glass today. He is not the lone potter, he works with a
team as a meastro. No reason to put him down for that. Would you denegrate
an architect or a conductor for having a team to do the work. Of course not.
It is my opinion that Mr. Chihuly is a sincere and dedicated artist.
Flamboyant- yes, breaking new ground-yes, making and doing stuff that crosses
old boundries and breaks the old rules-yes. Openning doors for others-yes.
HUCKSTER ??? definition is: a mercenary person, a publicity agent, a pedlar
or hawker. I don't get it. He designs and orchestrates the making and
installation of his work. Like any artist. Are you denegrating him for being
successfull ??
Maybe you just don't like the fact that he's having so much fun.. Isn't art
and creativity supposed to be fun ??
He was a very good glass blower before he lost the eye. He is now a master
of design and a consumate director in the hot shop.
It sounds like you don't actually know much about glass blowing or Dales
career.
Sour grapes perhaps ?????
Not like you to malign another artist to make a point. Petty to misspell his
name. Small stuff.....beneath you and the moderator of this list. Shame on
you.
Terry Sullivan
Nottingham Center for the Arts
vince pitelka on wed 12 apr 00
Terry -
I agree with most of what you say about Chihuly, but glass is his second art
form. His first art form is self-promotion, and he is one of the great
masters. That is not unusual in the mainstream contemporary art world, but
it is good to thnk about it, and to recognize those who really manipulate
the press to their advantage. I am interested in many of Chihuly's newer
forms and his installations, but he does nothing to gain the respect of
other artists, in glass or in other media when he continues to have a
production team manufacturing those same goddamn "seaforms" ad naseum and
sellng them for $25K.
- Vince
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> First off Dale Chihuly ( that is with a "y" ) is one of the most
adventurous
> artists working in glass today. He is not the lone potter, he works with a
> team as a meastro. No reason to put him down for that. Would you
denegrate an architect or a conductor for having a team to do the work. Of
course not.
> > It is my opinion that Mr. Chihuly is a sincere and dedicated artist.
> Flamboyant- yes, breaking new ground-yes, making and doing stuff that
crosses old boundries and breaks the old rules-yes. Openning doors for
others-yes.
> HUCKSTER ??? definition is: a mercenary person, a publicity agent, a
pedlar or hawker. I don't get it. He designs and orchestrates the making
and installation of his work. Like any artist. Are you denegrating him for
being successfull ??
> Maybe you just don't like the fact that he's having so much fun.. Isn't
art
> and creativity supposed to be fun ??
> He was a very good glass blower before he lost the eye. He is now a
master of design and a consumate director in the hot shop.
Vince Pitelka
Home - vpitelka@dekalb.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
http://www.craftcenter.tntech.edu/
rickmahaffey on wed 12 apr 00
Terry,
Are you aware that almost all, if not all of Dale's books are self
published? Dale is excellent at seeing that the kind of thing that most
artist/crafts people don't do gets done, that is make promotional
material and documenting every piece made. He is a master at self
promotion (maybe this is where the huckster comes from).
the view from nearby,
Rick Mahaffey
Terry Sullivan/Nottingham Center for the Arts wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Ok Mel that's the gauntlet on the floor.
>
> First off Dale Chihuly ( that is with a "y" ) is one of the most adventurous
> artists working in glass today. He is not the lone potter, he works with a
> team as a meastro. No reason to put him down for that. Would you denegrate
> an architect or a conductor for having a team to do the work. Of course not.
>
> It is my opinion that Mr. Chihuly is a sincere and dedicated artist.
> Flamboyant- yes, breaking new ground-yes, making and doing stuff that crosses
> old boundries and breaks the old rules-yes. Openning doors for others-yes.
>
> HUCKSTER ??? definition is: a mercenary person, a publicity agent, a pedlar
> or hawker. I don't get it. He designs and orchestrates the making and
> installation of his work. Like any artist. Are you denegrating him for being
> successfull ??
> Maybe you just don't like the fact that he's having so much fun.. Isn't art
> and creativity supposed to be fun ??
>
> He was a very good glass blower before he lost the eye. He is now a master
> of design and a consumate director in the hot shop.
>
> It sounds like you don't actually know much about glass blowing or Dales
> career.
> Sour grapes perhaps ?????
>
> Not like you to malign another artist to make a point. Petty to misspell his
> name. Small stuff.....beneath you and the moderator of this list. Shame on
> you.
>
> Terry Sullivan
> Nottingham Center for the Arts
Hank Murrow on tue 8 jul 03
On Tuesday, July 8, 2003, at 03:29 PM, Arnold Howard wrote:
> I attended a glass show last month in Seattle. The people I met were
> fanatical about hot glass. It is their passion. It is popular in
> Europe,
> too. In the mid-eighties, kiln-fired glass art was almost unheard of,
> especially glass fusing. The latest trend in glass seems to be lamp
> working (or glass blowing). Potters would love glass if they had the
> time to explore it.
Dear Arnold:
I occurred to me that I may be in a unique position to share
experiences here. From 1970 to 1973, I taught pottery and built most of
the glassblowing facilities at Anderson Ranch. It was a startup
operation, and the glassblowing teacher had no experience in building
furnaces. So, having lots of experience with kilns, I built the glory
holes, tank furnaces, pot furnaces, and annealing ovens. With my
background in glaze chemistry, I formulated most of the glass batches.
Of course, I spent a lot of time learning to control hot glass on the
end of both pipe and punty. It was lots of fun to work the hot glass,
and it was seductive to see the colors of newly formulated glass
shining in the windows of our cabin.
However, what I remember most vividly is when we turned off the
furnaces at the end of the year. My God, the silence that came down
upon us in our little mountain valley! I resolved that I would create a
quiet workplace for myself from that moment on, whatever the medium.
Hope my experience sheds some sound on the discussion,
Hank in Eugene
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