primalmommy on tue 26 mar 02
OK; I'm taking a night class, "fundamentals of 2d design" at the local
U. We are supposed to do a 15 minute oral presentation on the artist of
our choice. Since the teacher (who saw the review of my show inthe local
rag) announced to me that "pottery is not ART", I have chosen to do my
presentation on Picasso.
I am not writing asking clayart to do my homework --- in fact, it's
almost done. My supportive spouse ;0) borrowed me a laptop and projector
and taught me how to set up a power point slide show. I found lots of
images of his 2d work on line to use in the beginning of my "show"
(after all, it is a 2d design class) -- ending with a few of still
lifes/vessels, then some interesting slides of pots. I want to talk
about the collaboration w/ the potters in Madoura, and the politics of
his choices; apparently he was tiring of the dogmatic notions about his
art/art in general and elitism, and (as a member of the french communist
party) chose to "democratize' his work, elevating the artisan and
blurring the line between "fine' art and functional/daily stuff. I am
hoping my teacher will be taking notes at this point.
Anyway, I have been up past midnight for several nights in a row reading
from books and websites, gathering pithy quotes, scribbling down his
overlapping "periods" and wives/mistresses... Spent an hour and a half
in the clayart archives as well. Between the "picasso sucks" posts and
the "picasso is god" posts, I found some interesting reading.
Here's why I'm throwing this out to clayart: (not to start another
debate about whether picasso sucks; in almost a century of life and as a
prolific artist he has such a wide range there would be somethign to
offend or inspire anybody. What I'm wondering is whether anyone has a
particular little personal tidbit I might put in; something about
picasso's ceramics that surprised or amused or amazed you? A favorite
pot? (or where to find the image of it?) My report is Thursday night,
and while at 40 I'm no longer in it for the grade, I really have my own
agenda here . Not to mention how much I've enjoyed teaching myself abou
tthe topic.
The teacher encouraged us to make our talks interactive. I have made
from slabs 24 simple soapdish-type bowls, and will take in 24 paint
brushes and a dozen little jars of wax resist to let students and
teacher decorate a dish while they watch my slide show/talk. I'll glaze,
fire and return them the next week.
I am only asking because murphy's law says the minute I am done with my
project and it's too late, somebody will share something fabulous about
Picasso and I'll be kicking myself... so let me know if there's
something, from a potter's perspective, that might not have made it into
the writing of non-potters...
Thanks all.
Kelly in Ohio, in knee-deep snow.
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Michele Williams on wed 27 mar 02
In my first ceramics class, I was looking at many artist's work and found
Picasso had also done ceramics. I was astonished. At that point, I didn't
know how many different media some artists go into--always thought they went
into only one, even though I'm married to a man whose art talents are in
everything he does, from his engineering to his photography to his pencil
sketches to oil painting to acrylic to jewelry design, to....well, I just
thought he was unique. My own interests are not limited to one field, so I
don't know why I thought anyone else's would be.
Picasso's work in the various media shows several things that even a non-art
trained person can see.
1. Art is not just in the eye of the beholder; what the beholder sees is
someone's interpretation of something in or about our world, our lives. It
might be the use of color, form, composition, subject matter....but
something about art draws something from within us, a response that may be
delights or visceral gut rejections, but a response, nonetheless.
We live in a world full of sensory stimuli, but most of it is unnoticed
until we need to use it in some way. Art draws our attention when we don't
"need" it and when we weren't planning to notice it. Art makes us focus on
it somehow, even when there are other things bidding for our attention. Go
to a bank lobby one day and what do you look at after you see all the
tellers are busy? If there is Art, you look at it more than you look at the
clock. And you respond in some way because you are looking at it, examining
it. If you look at others who are waiting, some of them will be doing the
same.
2. Art is exploration. The artist explores space in ways others don't.
Who else takes an entire skyline and puts it in an 8 x 12 that cuts off the
tops of buildings? What happens to us in our minds when we can see only
parts of things, that part we never pay attention to because it is the OTHER
part of it we notice most? What happens to how we feel about the city then?
The space we saw in the sky around the tops of buildings is gone, the
spaciousness of the big city isn't there anymore--it's now a crowded, tight,
cramped, filled space that doesn't leave room for comfortable feelings.
Instead, you must study little boxes and squares to understand the picture.
What happened to us when Picasso put a lady's nose on upside down? Did we
suddenly realize, "HEY, noses don't go like that!" Then you noticed that it
wasn't in the same part of the face, and we thought, "Not there!" Didn't a
few wonder then, "But what if?" "Could it be possible?" "Why not?" When
an artist explores, he can make others explore as well. Isn't it art to
cause us to explore what we all have and have always had and have always
taken for granted...to notice it in new ways, to think about ourselves, our
lives, our society, our humanity in different ways? To make us explore our
response to what is within ourselves as well as what is before us?
3. The moment we leave pure functionality, we enter a realm of creativity
that is not essential for survival. That is where art begins. Art in
fabric is that the fabric is not just a protective covering to maintain
health, that something about it goes beyond mere covering. Art in
photography is more than just a picture of what is there. Art in painting
is more than just recording a moment in time exactly as it was. Art in
ceramics is more than just making an object that holds something else in it
or on it. When we start looking for beauty, expanding upon form, looking
for something that enlarges our perceptions, then we are looking for art.
This is what Picasso's weird stuff taught me. And it was not his paintings.
It was his ceramics. Ceramics before picasso was not much different than
functional pottery and painters of what everybody/anybody sees. Before
Picasso, we "humanly photographed" upon everything we did. It was Picasso's
way of reaching inside the pockets of creativity and turning them inside out
to see everything that might be there that made us go beyond the obvious and
how well somebody could copy it.
Ask your art teacher how much one can expect to learn from something that is
purely functional and how far we can generalize what we learned. For
example, once you use a screwdriver, it's pretty much a screwdriver or a
lever, and we don't use it for much more than that. But when something
someone creates alters your perceptions of your whole world, that is Art.
When is the last time your teacher did that?
Michele Williams
----- Original Message -----
From: "primalmommy"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 10:36 PM
Subject: picasso project
> OK; I'm taking a night class, "fundamentals of 2d design" at the local
> U. We are supposed to do a 15 minute oral presentation on the artist of
> our choice. Since the teacher (who saw the review of my show inthe local
> rag) announced to me that "pottery is not ART", I have chosen to do my
> presentation on Picasso.
>
> I am not writing asking clayart to do my homework --- in fact, it's
> almost done. My supportive spouse ;0) borrowed me a laptop and projector
> and taught me how to set up a power point slide show. I found lots of
> images of his 2d work on line to use in the beginning of my "show"
> (after all, it is a 2d design class) -- ending with a few of still
> lifes/vessels, then some interesting slides of pots. I want to talk
> about the collaboration w/ the potters in Madoura, and the politics of
> his choices; apparently he was tiring of the dogmatic notions about his
> art/art in general and elitism, and (as a member of the french communist
> party) chose to "democratize' his work, elevating the artisan and
> blurring the line between "fine' art and functional/daily stuff. I am
> hoping my teacher will be taking notes at this point.
>
> Anyway, I have been up past midnight for several nights in a row reading
> from books and websites, gathering pithy quotes, scribbling down his
> overlapping "periods" and wives/mistresses... Spent an hour and a half
> in the clayart archives as well. Between the "picasso sucks" posts and
> the "picasso is god" posts, I found some interesting reading.
>
> Here's why I'm throwing this out to clayart: (not to start another
> debate about whether picasso sucks; in almost a century of life and as a
> prolific artist he has such a wide range there would be somethign to
> offend or inspire anybody. What I'm wondering is whether anyone has a
> particular little personal tidbit I might put in; something about
> picasso's ceramics that surprised or amused or amazed you? A favorite
> pot? (or where to find the image of it?) My report is Thursday night,
> and while at 40 I'm no longer in it for the grade, I really have my own
> agenda here . Not to mention how much I've enjoyed teaching myself abou
> tthe topic.
>
> The teacher encouraged us to make our talks interactive. I have made
> from slabs 24 simple soapdish-type bowls, and will take in 24 paint
> brushes and a dozen little jars of wax resist to let students and
> teacher decorate a dish while they watch my slide show/talk. I'll glaze,
> fire and return them the next week.
>
> I am only asking because murphy's law says the minute I am done with my
> project and it's too late, somebody will share something fabulous about
> Picasso and I'll be kicking myself... so let me know if there's
> something, from a potter's perspective, that might not have made it into
> the writing of non-potters...
>
> Thanks all.
>
> Kelly in Ohio, in knee-deep snow.
> _______________________________________________________________
> Get your own FREE email account at iVillage.com!
> http://webmail.ivillage.com
>
>
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