Kathy Forer on wed 28 jul 04
On Jul 27, 2004, at 9:42 PM, mel jacobson wrote:
> be a potter one,
> artist second, craftsperson third or, mix these as one....
Il mio professore used to say "you do be a person first, then an
artist." He contrasted it with a more rapacious "art first, then life"
hard-headedness . Be Matisse not
Picasso basically ). A bit of an obvious
sense of priorities for many potters probably -- you all seem to know
how to drink tea and cook and have family life -- but many aspiring
artists seem to have more of an underground mentality, cheery and
devoted or cynical and destructive as that may be defined.
In the city with a day finally to burn, if I can remember how. I'm set
to look at Brancusi at the Guggenheim and Andy Goldsworthy on the roof
at the Met; When the thunder and lightning stop, Isamu Noguchi at the
Garden Museum and the Socrates Sculpture Park, both in Astoria. Waiting
eagerly for Lee Bontecou at MoMA, July 30. Also haven't seen Thomas
Hart Benton, frogs at the museum of natural history and a myriad far
too many gallery exhibitions. Not even to mention splendid summer
performances (though hey I can now configure a Mac blindfolded and have
carved out a creekside studio somewhere not too far that finally has
some clear floor space for dancing).
So I don't overstay my welcome in clayart, I'll tack on a comment on
studio visitors here. Store or no store, when someone walks through
your space and sees nothing but their own self (and not existential
either), it's annoying and despiriting. I've had people come look who
know nothing or little about art or craft and see and are interested
and others who profess to be artists who can't see a darn thing or
don't know how to look or listen. Or are so miserable they can only
talk of themselves. I'm pretty guilty of self-involvement, but it's
only polite, "politic" Phil might say, to be attentive to your hosts.
Anything less is rude. And uneducated as well, there's so much we can
learn from each other. And it's more fun to dance together.
Kathy
in NY
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