Lily Krakowski on tue 22 apr 03
Katie:
You are not alone.
I think we all feel naked when our work is exposed to public view. We put
a lot of ourselves into it, and exhibiting it peels back a lot of privacy.
The only analogy I can find is when one is first in a dorm or gym, not used
to public nudity, and suddenly must accept and deal with total strangers
seeing one starkers. I always have been a mutt, but I once was told by a
girl who was a great beauty that she minded a lot, because she felt--she
probably was right--that people looked at her more, and differently, than at
the regular run of women there, mutts included!
Comparison is not competition. When you shop for anything you compare.
Do I want a blue wool skirt or is brown corduroy better? Comparison is part
of decision making.
Competition is not the same. Competition demands a winner. If the wool and
the corduroy were people, they would be competing for the pleasure of being
bought and worn by you. And, when you get to selling your work, people will
compare your pot and the one next to it made by someone else and decide
which is better for them. I never cease to quote a remark made by Barbara
Cowles of Shop One ( read all about it on its Internet webpage) : "The
potter comes in crying 'Barbara, Barbara! I got a peach blossom glaze....'
And the customer comes in with some swatches and says: "Barbara--what would
go well with...'" If the customer buys your lovely copper reduction red,
rather than my slip decorated pot,it does not make one better than the
other, not necessarily. It simply means that on HER coffee table, in HER
house, she thinks your pot would look better.
In Genesee Diary, I think it is, there is a conversation between a very
anxious priest (the author) and the abbot of a Trappist monastery. The
priest complains he always is so exhausted from teaching; and the abbot says
that it is because the priest does not split himself off from his lecture.
He gives a lecture, or delivers a paper, and takes the audience reaction as
a judgment on his own personal worth. WHICH IT IS NOT. There is no
judgment passed on YOU when a person passes your pots by and goes ape over
someone else's.
Just think. We go to a food fair. There is lovely lovely food! Yummy
incarnate! I pass the caviar on toast (loathe the stuff) avoid the baklava
(too sweet) and go mad for the chopped liver! Should the chef at the caviar
table, the baker of the baklava feel bad? Of course not! So?
Henry Miller wrote that the hardest, longest journey is the one into
oneself. Once you have reached a certain inner depth you will stop
competing. I gave up shows forty years ago when I realized that all shows
accomplish is let the world know what Juror One, Juror Two, Juror Three
agreed on that they liked! It said NOTHING about my work or anyone else's.
I am too busy improving my work in MY eyes to waste time and energy seeing
who else cares. I care. The people who buy my stuff care. That is quite
enough.
I differ from you STRONGLY on your relativism. Not all things can be taken
in and accepted. Some things are not just "different" they ARE better or
ARE worse. I truly believe there is good and there is evil, and good is
better than evil...
A couple of men cut open a pregnant woman's belly and extract the baby in
it. Isn't there all the difference in the world who these men are? Are
they obstetricians performing a C-section, or SS men, or rebels or
terrorists or police of some sort "punishing" a prisoner or opponent? The
action is SO similar...the reasons SO different...One can be accepted and
taken in...the other must not be. Not now, not ever, as much as relativism
is tempting...
Lili Krakowski
P.O. Box #
Constableville, N.Y
(315) 942-5916/ 397-2389
Be of good courage....
=?iso-8859-1?q?Katie=20Ellis?= on wed 23 apr 03
> I differ from you STRONGLY on your relativism. Not
> all things can be taken
> in and accepted. Some things are not just
> "different" they ARE better or
> ARE worse. I truly believe there is good and there
> is evil, and good is
> better than evil...
Lili~
Thank you for your wonderful response. I know I am
unclear in what I am trying to ask, but please
understand that I also believe in the importance of
discerning between good and evil. That's exactly why
I said "SOME things aren't better, they aren't worse,
they're just different..." I just wonder WHY we make
judgements/decisions about EVERYTHING, (even when
deciding between two skirts...why not buy both? ;) )
and where it is that we pass the line of discerning
and start making unneccesary judgements. I suppose
I'm still not absolutly sure how to go about
explaining my question.
When I was studying abroad in Costa Rica, one of the
hardest things I had to learn was how to compromise my
culture, and not my values. It seems so simple now
that I know that was what I was trying to do. I
suppose I'd just like to know how that works in the
art world. Where is the line between 'culture' and
'values'? Where is the line where silent acceptance
turns into comforming and compromising your values,
and taking a stand for what you believe in turns into
judgement or censorship? It's obvious why there must
BE a line, but at the same time I still find myself
asking WHY there must be one, even though I know why.
Life is about such a fine balance...and I'm still
searching to find that balance for myself.
~Katie
still confused...but hoping a morning in the clay
studio will make it crystal clear...or at least as
clear as groggy raku clay...
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Información de Estados Unidos y América Latina, en Yahoo! Noticias.
Visítanos en http://noticias.espanol.yahoo.com
Karin Abromaitis on wed 23 apr 03
Katie,
Did you say you were still in High School? Then I say-kudos to you kiddo=
! You've got your head on straight and are asking all the right questions=
-the hard ones. Its so refreshing to hear a young person grappling with =
this, instead of whining. I promise that by asking the tough questions, =
wrestling with and digging for the deeper, underlying issues you will see=
more, and understand more of the world, and life will open and unfold to=
you in ways unimaginable. Good luck to you and a fearless journey.
Karin in MD
----- Original Message -----
From: Katie Ellis
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 3:01 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: shows/discernment/and utter confusion--long
> I differ from you STRONGLY on your relativism. Not
> all things can be taken
> in and accepted. Some things are not just
> "different" they ARE better or
> ARE worse. I truly believe there is good and there
> is evil, and good is
> better than evil...
Lili~
Thank you for your wonderful response. I know I am
unclear in what I am trying to ask, but please
understand that I also believe in the importance of
discerning between good and evil. That's exactly why
I said "SOME things aren't better, they aren't worse,
they're just different..." I just wonder WHY we make
judgements/decisions about EVERYTHING, (even when
deciding between two skirts...why not buy both? ;) )
and where it is that we pass the line of discerning
and start making unneccesary judgements. I suppose
I'm still not absolutly sure how to go about
explaining my question.
When I was studying abroad in Costa Rica, one of the
hardest things I had to learn was how to compromise my
culture, and not my values. It seems so simple now
that I know that was what I was trying to do. I
suppose I'd just like to know how that works in the
art world. Where is the line between 'culture' and
'values'? Where is the line where silent acceptance
turns into comforming and compromising your values,
and taking a stand for what you believe in turns into
judgement or censorship? It's obvious why there must
BE a line, but at the same time I still find myself
asking WHY there must be one, even though I know why.
Life is about such a fine balance...and I'm still
searching to find that balance for myself.
~Katie
still confused...but hoping a morning in the clay
studio will make it crystal clear...or at least as
clear as groggy raku clay...
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Informaci=F3n de Estados Unidos y Am=E9rica Latina, en Yahoo! Noticias.
Vis=EDtanos en http://noticias.espanol.yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________________________=
_____
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclin=
k.com.
| |
|
