L. P. Skeen on wed 2 apr 03
Ok, when this came up a month or so ago, I ignored it, but now I'm not. You
(and by "you" I mean those who are complaining, not just Eleanora) seem to
assume that this is a clayart calendar, and as such you should be included
right off the bat. This is an incorrect assumption on 'your' part. The
calendar is NOT "the clayart calendar", for a couple of reasons.
a. mel and co. made it plain after the cookbook that the clayart name was
not to be used by anybody outside ACERS.
b. the calendar has NOTHING to do with Clayart, per se. I sent many
messages to the list in the form of a 'call for entries', because Clayart is
the way to reach 3000 clay artists directly, all at once, at no cost to me.
I also posted the call for entries on art deadlines lists and in some other
places.
At the risk of sounding evil and controlling, _I_ own the calendar. As the
owner, _I_ get to say what goes in the calendar, much like a show organizer
gets to say what's in or out. Would you call up Jean Lehman and bitch
because the SFPN excludes non-functional work? I think not.
Just as there is and will be ongoing debate over what is art vs. what is
craft, there will always be debate over what is and what is not pottery. We
each have to make up our own minds on these issues, and once that's done, as
someone else recently said about the war discussion, it's unusual for the
mindset to change. In other words, _I_ (not you) get to decide what I
consider to be pottery.
A calendar of this type is usually only 12 pages in size. Although I have
included a wide variety of work in the 2003 calendar, it would be impossible
to cover the entire spectrum of what we call Ceramics in such a small
object. (not the right word, but I can't think of the right word...venue?)
I see the term "ceramics" as a sort of umbrella with those little spoke
sections, and each section is a different type of ceramics. Thrown pottery,
handbuilt pottery, molded ceramics, hobby ceramics, clay sculpture, and
whatever the word is for pieces that look like something else, but are made
from clay (is that trompe l'oeil?), are all sections of the umbrella to me.
There are other sections, and subsections under some of the spokes. It's a
never-ending circle.
The bottom line is this: What goes in the calendar are pieces that are
interesting to ME. Nobody else has the right to tell me what should or
should not be there.
That said, you can expect to see a really neat variety of work in this
year's (2004) calendar. One of the most interesting is a sculpture by
Robert Santerre that I'd really like to see in person. There will be
functional and non-functional work as well. :) The submissions have been
rolling in this week, (deadline was Monday) and so I think we'll have an
excellent calendar totally different from 2003.
L
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eleanora Eden"
> Well, your endeavors outstrip mine by a long howdy do. I appreciate that
> you stuck your oar in. All the stuff you mention ought to be
> self-evident. People are forever knocking other people down to make
> themselves look better.....
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