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blue rantings

updated mon 9 aug 04

 

June Perry on thu 5 aug 04


This is really such a silly thread; but I can't resist! :-)
My favorite plate, is a wide shallow, blue bowl (one of mine) that I reach
for every time I have pasta. I happen to love blue and some food looks great on
blue. A blue patter with thick sliced beefsteak tomatoes is a sight to
behold! Carrot and squash look great on blue and just about any other pasta dish as
well.
I also happen to love shinos and just about every other color except some
shades of olive green which I personally find pretty putrid, which is why I don't
have that shade of green in my glaze repertoire.
I won't go into what is a job for psychologists, as to why some people seem
to have "Blue Hate". One of the reasons often given (we've had this thread more
once), is that blue is easy. Well, that doesn't explain it. White is easy
too. So is green, so is black. So what really is the cause of such intense,
negative, emotional outpouring from a couple of posters every time we talk about
blue? Do any of these people have blue eyes. I wonder if they wear brown
contacts! LOL
Do they refuse to look at the sky, or view it through shino lenses??? Curious
minds would like to know. HMMM!
There are good pots with blue and ugly pots with shino, temmoku, and visa
versa. Temmoku is easy too, but we don't see prejudice except from the customers
who tend to keep their wallets deeply buried anytime they come upon Temmoku,
as reported by many potters here and elsewhere.
So what is really going on here? Is it envy because all those blue pots sell
so fast?
Are the blue potters so into blue hate that they can't imagine that some
potters actually like the color blue? I really would like to know the real cause
of all this antagonistic behavior toward a particular color.
I remember when we had this thread before, someone mentioned having a bad
show and the person near him with blue pots had a huge stack of charge receipts
she was flaunting, as she walked up and down the aisle, after the show saying
"blue, blue, blue", as she waved the large stack of receipts..
I wonder if Ford Motors would put out colors year after year that didn't
sell, or if clothing manufacturers would put out colors that were proven disasters
year after year. A smart manufacturer has a pulse on the buying public and
gears production toward satisfying those needs.
Now if consider yourself an an artist and you hate blue don't use blue
glazes; but don't get yourself in such state because other people like blue and
their sales are great.
Should people who hate shino, make shinos just to please some elitist view
that shino is better than blue? I sure hope that they wouldn't!
Leach didn't like blue, but he also struggled financially and had to hold
little raku firings to get people ot come and buy his pots.
Tony Clenell says he only uses one glaze - Shino, and he doesn't seem to get
tired of that one glaze and his customers are buying enough to keep his wine
cellar filled; and he seems like one happy guy! :-) So, the color boredom
factor shouldn't be a consideration either, because obviously some people like
looking at the same color at every kiln opening and obvisouly some customers who
love a particular color don't mind either.
So, maybe we should start an organization to protect blue from prejudicial
attacks -- the NAABP (National Association for the advancement of blue pots)!
Lord, with all the problems in the world, I can't believe that some people
are spending so much energy ranting against one color! LOL
Now if you want to talk ugly -- there are some shades of turd brown that
really turn me off!

Regards,
June Perry
http://www.angelfire.com/art2/shambhalapottery/

Ivor and Olive Lewis on sat 7 aug 04


My high school art career was cut short when I insisted in colouring
the three elephants I had place in a Circus poster Red, White and
Blue. The Art Master would allow a White elephant but not the Red or
the Blue. Nor would he accept my argument that this was (in 1944) a
patriotic expression.
Blue is Legitimate.
Ivor (Blue Eyes) Lewis