Paul Lewing on tue 29 nov 05
on 11/29/05 5:20 AM, clennell at clennell@SYMPATICO.CA wrote:
> Are we talking about getting our wives a job, so that we can be
> more creative or are we actually going to get the job? I think about getting
> Sheila a job every week! She thinks about me getting one. So we get da blues
> together.
I found a quote recently, and I wish I'd written down who said it.
"An amateur is a guy who has another job so he can make art. A professional
is a guy whose wife has another job so he can make art".
All too often, it's too true to be funny.
Paul Lewing, Seattle
clennell on tue 29 nov 05
Sour Cherry Pottery
> On 2005/11/29 6:36:20, lizwill@phc.igs.net wrote:
>
>
>> 1. Who are you?
>> 2. What is it you want to do?
>> 3. How are you going to make a living at it?
>
> These make more sense. I can't see $$$ signs coming out of the mouth of
> the Gnomish countenance of Mick Casson ;-)
>
> Which brings me back to a thought: There is no reason to be apologetic
> about a day job. Creative people have always had them. Actually, it is
> one way to be free from the market driving your creative work. Don't
> want to do blue? Don't have to. A day job is creative license.
Hey Lee: Are we talking about getting our wives a job, so that we can be
more creative or are we actually going to get the job? I think about getting
Sheila a job every week! She thinks about me getting one. So we get da blues
together.
Sold $600 worth of shino with cobalt underslip to a customer on Sunday.That
means I didn't have to get the Career Section for Sheila on Monday.
You can't image $$$$$ coming out of Mick Cassons mouth? He was very much
into potters making a living at craft. He and David Leach started the
Dartington Pottery that made and sold a line of dinnnerware for that
purpose( cobalt decoration). Students producing a line of dinnerware for
training to go on their own.
"Some and some" is also a line from Micks mouth. Make some for the
marketplace and some for yourself. Mick and Sheila were studio potters
without independent means. Mick was an ironmonger (hardware store owner)
before he and Sheila went cold turkey in potttery. My prize pot of his is a
greenish blue wood salt jug. Beside it stands a Wally Keeler blue salty.
Wally's wife also works along side him. Beautiful pots both and they're
blue.
You're damn right, I got da blues- Buddy Guy
Cheers,
Tony
Tony and Sheila Clennell
Sour Cherry Pottery
4545 King Street
Beamsville, Ontario
CANADA L0R 1B1
http://www.sourcherrypottery.com
http://www.sourcherrypottery.com/current_news/news_letter.html
Lee Love on wed 30 nov 05
On 2005/11/30 11:43:06, pjlewing@worldnet.att.net wrote:
> "An amateur is a guy who has another job so he can make art. A
professional
> is a guy whose wife has another job so he can make art".
I was a writer before becoming a potter and get inspiration from other
writers.
William Everson said that writing was an avocation and not a vocation.
Novelist John Gardener said, You know you are a writer, when no matter
what happens in your life, you keep on writing.
Just substitute potter or pottery for writer and writing.
--
李 Lee Love 大
愛 鱗
in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/ My Photo Logs
http://ikiru.blogspot.com/ Zen and Craft
"The way we are, we are members of each other. All of us. Everything.
The difference ain't in who is a member and who is not, but in who knows
it and who don't."
--Burley Coulter (Wendell Berry)
Lee Love on wed 30 nov 05
On 2005/11/29 22:20:13, clennell@sympatico.ca wrote:
> Hey Lee: Are we talking about getting our wives a job, so that we can be
> more creative or are we actually going to get the job? I think about
getting
> Sheila a job every week! She thinks about me getting one. So we get
da blues
> together.
Teaching like you do is another acceptable "outside job" alternative..
Lotsa potters in Mashiko keep their wives chained to the studio. Cheaper
than hired help. Myself, I couldn't imagine being married to someone I'd
be able make those kinds of decisions for.
After the economic bubble burst in Japan, many potter's wives here got
truck driver's jobs. Commercial licenses here are harder to get, so it
is a career more open to women . One of the disadvantages to the
potter's life here, is that there is not a workshop system set up like
what we have in the States. So pottery teaching is not as common a way
to supplement pottery income. But almost none of my friends here in
Mashiko, except the famous ones you know Tony, lack jobs outside of
pottery. Most foreigners teach english. It is a good alternative, paying
better than teaching pottery part-time back home. But Japanese potters
don't normally have this choice. I have know several potter's wives who
teach music.
What is important to understand, especially for a teacher, is that not
everybody has to do it the way I do. Tony, how many of the hundreds of
young people you have taught, are making a living as a full-time potting
couple? Are you giving them a realistic perspective on their
opportunities? To have a good chance at success, it is better to have a
realistic idea about what is possible and the combination of choices
they have open to them.
> Sold $600 worth of shino with cobalt underslip to a customer on
Sunday.That
> means I didn't have to get the Career Section for Sheila on Monday.
We all make our choices. I haven't started using cobalt under shino
here. Wouldn't be acceptable, except maybe by a visiting foreigner. ;-)
The Japanese a picky about what they call Shino. But I do use impure
gosu as inlay under Irabo (runny ash glaze) and also sandwiched between
layers of nami jiro. It is a more varied blue than pure cobalt, when
sandwiched, sometimes breaking to metallic.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with blue. Chuns are exciting.
Anything that gets its blue from iron is a challenge.
> You can't image $$$$$ coming out of Mick Cassons mouth? He was very
much > into potters making a >living at craft.
Making a living is different than saying "it is all about money." It is
the difference between craft and prostitution. I've watched young
potters here, get thrown into the Department store system, and are so
busy "selling what sells" that they don't have time to develop as
artists. It really is a waste of young talent. It would be better for
them creatively, if they had more time to develop themselves.
As I mentioned, I came to pottery through Thoreau, Berry, Snyder, Leach,
Hamada, and MacKenzie. I came though a movement that views unrestrained
materialism and consumerism as a hinderence to humane living. Pottery
can be an antidote in a throw-away society. If you look at our craft
from this perspective, then you can't let the dollar be the bottom line.
--
李 Lee Love 大
愛 鱗
in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/ My Photo Logs
http://ikiru.blogspot.com/ Zen and Craft
"With Humans it's what's here (he points to his heart) that makes the
difference. If you don't have it in the heart, nothing you make will
make a difference."
~~Bernard Leach~~ (As told to Dean Schwarz)
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