Karen Sullivan on mon 26 mar 01
on 3/26/01 9:27 AM, Hank Murrow at hmurrow@EFN.ORG wrote:
> being a 62 yearold curmudgeon
The world has changed dramatically, eh what....
More competition, more people, more demands on the planet,
more people wanting to be noticed...through more possible
vehicles for communication...more sophisticated information
because more people are contributing to the body of knowledge...
so more competition and desire to be noticed, so
more use of SHOCK VALUE as a means of turning heads...
so less time to look...more to look at...
More recent history to respond too...more diverse images to
select identity from...
More rules and technical rules to abide by, and less
innovative need to survive by new solutions to problems
The world is indeed a new place...
I selected the phrase bamboo grove as an image of
a location to hide...one can see through the stalks of
bamboo out into the world, and venture out to observe
what is going on, but also retreat into the grove to
reflect...
bamboo karen
Hank Murrow on mon 26 mar 01
Dear Clayarters;
Following this thread with intense interest as one who grew into pottery in
the fifties, earned an MFA in the sixties, taught in the seventies, and
have been potting in my own studio ever since. When I began, noone, I mean
noone, cared about pottery as a study except those who practiced it. There
was no pressure to be famous, nor was there any trouble getting brick to
build kilns, nor did we have to ask permission of anyone to exercise our
curiosity. Brick, kiln shelves and burners were all treated as
'expendables'. About 10% of my time as a teacher was given to 'becoming
known'.
This changed much during the last thirty years, until we now have college
profs devoting over 40% of their time to becoming internationally known, to
the dismay of those who came to study with them. Potters are exceptionally
vulnerable, as they must increasingly make the case that what they do is
'art', often only through the medium of slides, which eliminates about half
of what a pot is all about_____what the chinese call 'heft'. During my
student years, we wanted a course in Geology for potters; we got it. We
wanted a course in physics for potters; we got it. Imagine trying to
generate such courses for your students now as you spend 40% of your time
trying to be famous just to get and retain tenure.
I LOVED the atmosphere at my school (U of Oregon in the 50s/60s), and made
pretty good use of the entire university curriculum, and imagine that I
could do that today as well. BUT, I would be unlikely to receive the
attention and good advice that was available so freely when 'noone cared
about pottery'. As a practicing ware potter, I have built kilns and
repaired equipment that noone now knows anything about in the same studio
where I learned these skills, and that I graduated from.
So, I am not ranting about 'schools vs studios' as learning environments. I
am just somewhat sanguine about the effects of pursuing fame which have
increasingly followed upon the attention ceramics is getting nowadays. Or,
go ahead and just accuse me of being a 62 yearold curmudgeon, that probably
fits as well.
Ruminating in Eugene, Hank
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