Steven Branfman on mon 9 dec 02
Friends,
Elizabeth Herod's posting about my son Jared and I (Jared is a junior at
Alfred U) stirred this little anecdote that I thought you would find
amusing..........
We (Ellen, myself, Jared, and his younger brother Adam) were having dinner
one night early during Jared's junior year in high school. All of a sudden,
out of the clear blue sky, Jared announced that he had decided that he wanted
to go to art school. Now, despite what some of you might assume, I never
pushed or forced an art career or art education on my children. Of course,
Jared as well as Adam had spent time in my studio, gone to my exhibitions and
had attended ocassional workshop presentations. Our home is filled with art
and craft so the influence was certainly there but neither of them "grew up"
doing clay. Anyway, Jared makes this announcement and of course I am feeling
immediately thrilled, proud, and very happy that he thinks he knows what he
want to do in college. (side bar: Ellen and I have been married for almost 27
years and my career has always been one of clay). For a moment there is
silence. As I am about to tell him how wonderful this all is and as long as
he does what he is interested in and loves he can do anything he wants, and
he has our full encouragement and support, etc, etc, etc, Ellen (I love her)
blurts out "Art school! How is he going to make a living??" At once, Jared,
Adam, and I turn our heads towards Ellen, after making simultaneous eye
contact with her the three of us turn our heads to each other and all 4 of us
explode in laughter!!! My, how we can forget the obvious and let our emotions
can get the best of us!!
Incidentally, Adam is a freshman at Skidmore College and is quitely persuing
a studio and art history education, Shhhhhh............
Steven Branfman
Jennifer F Boyer on tue 10 dec 02
FUNNY! Wish I'd been a fly on the wall.
My daughter Jesse took fine art classes at Bates College. She's
26 now. She's a born MAKER. Everything she puts her hands on
turns out beautifully. She tried to start a craft business in CA
making fabric bags. Did a great job producing a nice line of
work, beautiful business cards etc, but she found that she HATES
marketing. Especially to galleries. So she has a day job now and
sells her bags to a few galleries and at a craft show. If that
young lady could just sit home and produce beautiful stuff she'd
be happy happy, but then there's the THEN WHAT part....She
dislikes marketing herself enough that she's happy to have a pay
check from a regular job.
Steve, keep us updated about how your kids paths: I find it
fascinating to watch young people find their paths.
Steven Branfman wrote:
>
> Friends,
>
> Elizabeth Herod's posting about my son Jared and I (Jared is a junior at
> Alfred U) stirred this little anecdote that I thought you would find
> amusing..........
>
Ellen (I love her)
> blurts out "Art school! How is he going to make a living??"
>
> Incidentally, Adam is a freshman at Skidmore College and is quitely persuing
> a studio and art history education, Shhhhhh............
>
> Steven Branfman
>
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jennifer Boyer mailto:jboyer@adelphia.net
Thistle Hill Pottery Montpelier VT USA
http://www.thistlehillpottery.com/
Never pass on an email warning without checking out these sites
for web hoaxes and junk:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/
http://snopes.com
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
John Rodgers on thu 12 dec 02
All my life I have been a maker of things, models, boats, airplanes,
houses, industrial buildings, cars, machines, tools ..... the emergence
into clay is just an extension of what I have always done, exercise a
passionate creative drive that absolutely demanded a way to be
expressed. My life has been enriched with adventurous variety as a
result of the activity this drive put me through. The mother of my
children was a very creative woman, from the core. A true artist, she
had extraordinary originality of thought and could express it in many
mediums. Her quilting was incredible. She played reed instruments
beautifully, her sculpture work was astounding, her freestyle dancing
was elegant, graceful and moving. I could go on.
Yet not one of our children have exhibited any of our artistic bents.
They pursue nothing with passion but the pursuit of money. They work
diligently at things to make money that would simply drive me mad. I say
money is the root of all evil. They tell me "Dad, money is the key to
doing all else you wish to do!"
So there it is, the changing of the guard, the passing of the baton, the
decline of one generational philosophy, the rise of the new. I can just
hope maybe there will be a grandchild one day that will see the worm in
the apple and laugh, instead of screaming and grabbing the insecticide.
John Rodgers
Birmingham, AL
Earl Brunner on mon 16 dec 02
Two of my children have "dabbled" in clay, but the "fire" isn't in them. They have
no drive to make and can take it or leave it. The oldest is very money oriented
(sounds like yours). I have speculated that in their younger years when I was
still pursuing the "potter's life" and we were very poor materially that he was
influenced by the lack of money. Instead of following the values, he reacted to
them.
John Rodgers wrote:
> Yet not one of our children have exhibited any of our artistic bents.
> They pursue nothing with passion but the pursuit of money. They work
> diligently at things to make money that would simply drive me mad. I say
> money is the root of all evil. They tell me "Dad, money is the key to
> doing all else you wish to do!"
>
> So there it is, the changing of the guard, the passing of the baton, the
> decline of one generational philosophy, the rise of the new. I can just
> hope maybe there will be a grandchild one day that will see the worm in
> the apple and laugh, instead of screaming and grabbing the insecticide.
>
> John Rodgers
> Birmingham, AL
>
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--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
mailto:bruec@anv.net
Dawn Christensen on tue 17 dec 02
HI
I am fortunate. I am a teacher (became one later in life) and now
that my children are growing up and deciding what to do with their life, the
openness in our household has given them the freedom to choose what they want
to do. The oldest, with the best design and color sense has not decided to
go the art way. Although, you wouldn't know that if you walked in her house.
She will, later I can tell, right now she is not ready. The middle is
becoming an architect but has an art minor. She is doing 7 foot painting on
walls right now, learning structures, and working with a boy that has autism.
She has taught a design camp sponsored by Target. I smell teacher in her
too. The youngest is always happiest when he is covered in clay. He went to
school for urban forestry and called two months later to say he didn't like
it. He has worked on his electives and he throws any chance he has. He is
checking out schools to transfer to in fall, but wants his MFA in ceramics.
He taught at a camp in the summer and got the job out of Ceramics Monthly.
He is my raku partner. Adults like children come to things or back to things
when they are ready. Stay open. Even if the finances affected them they
might come back and bring some business sense with them. Dawn
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