primalmommy on mon 12 jun 06
I am home from Eastern Michigan, with a moment for coffee before I start
getting the house ready for my in-laws, whose land yacht will moor in
our driveway tomorrow and hook its snaky connections to our water,
electric and Cable TV lines.
The kiln workshop was a great experience on so many levels. The
realities of scarce college funding for arts programs in general, and
ceramics in particular, means one of the things potters need to learn is
just what Marcia is talking about -- how to think on your feet, spin
straw into gold, jerry-rig and make it work. The kiln we built was a
phoenix rising form the ashes -- Diana's old kiln from Canada, boxed as
bricks in the shed, and some decades-old, mint condition Empire burners
that she cradled in her lap and marveled over while explaining how it
all fits together.
So there were inner hard and outer soft bricks, 2000s and 2600s to tell
apart and separate, bricks with some history, bricks that were
less-than-pristine for less crucial spots, bricks we needed to learn how
to score and break to fit, things we built and rebuilt, thought and
rethought.
Find a tool or make it, build a problem and then solve it. Thinking on
your feet was the unwritten syllabus, and a skill more applicable to
most potters' lives than to folks who can afford to order all new
materials without cutting corners, hire it done, or build a "prefab".
Everybody brought something to the party. Some of us were mostly muscle
and bustle... potter Claudia from Brazil had a quilter's eye as well,
and saw patterns and fits in the brick that the rest of us couldn't see
as well. Sara had salt experience and Dawn had a detail-and-order skill,
Steve had a practical light-bulb-moment for arch planning and we all
took turns breaking bricks. When decision had to be made, Diana stirred
up a conversation about all the options and then told us, "you decide".
We started to feel like it was our kiln.
In fact, it occurred to me part way through the workshop that Patrick,
Reem and I would actually fire it, starting this fall. When we had to
decide about the width of the doorway -- (build to the bricks? or to the
shelf? or...) I suggested that we consider what size would best allow
Patrick to load, as he is a tall, substantially built guy with wide
shoulders. He "tried on" the two-brick doorway and did just fine. When
we were done, I suggested that we name the kiln "Fitzpatrick".
Diana is clearly the boss, but the way she teaches is democratic and
empowering. (not kissing up here, I have neither the tact nor, at my
age, the inclination.)
If I have a flag to wave lately, it's leveling the playing field. If I
can teach my students to buy a cheap varitone and take good digitals of
their best pots, that's a good thing. Potters no longer need an arts
program with a photo department or a hire-a-professional budget to
submit good slides to street fairs or competitions, websites or
publications. If I can build a clay bread-oven, I can build a kiln. The
big hurdles are physical strength, our fallible human joints and
tendons, knowledge, and money. I can't fix joints but we all can share
knowledge. And if there's a way to do it cheaply, I am ON it.
I don't know what to make of professor bashing. Like homeschooler
bashing, it seems to be based on some stereotypical characterization of
what really goes on, and one that I can find no trace of in reality. I
find an equal balance of snobbery in academic and non-academic potters,
and an equal balance of cluelessness in schooling and homeschooling
parents -- but somehow the cases on the one side are considered a fluke
and on the other side are considered "typical". Fertile ground for
closed-minded pigeonholing.
I suspect part of it is based in the universal "nobody appreciates the
value of what I do" angst. None of us get the kudos we deserve for our
day jobs, our home responsibilities, our dedication in the studio, our
creativity and hard work. I suppose that makes it tempting to resent the
folks who seem to have the recognition -- via expensive car, or academic
position, or steady paycheck. Professional jealousy, again.
I can't imagine anyone REALLY believes the CEO with the Mercedes is a
better person or a harder worker than the guy who puts transmissions in
Jeeps on the line all day, but one seems to have been rewarded for
his/her effort and the other, not. The unfairness is lamentable, but we
gain nothing by growling at the other dog who seems to have gotten a
bone. We're all in the same boat. It reminds me of a funniest-video clip
my mother tells about, where a dog is so protective of the bone he's
gnawing, he keep stopping to attack his own hind leg, thinking it is
making a move on his prize. Um, duh.
Maybe there are profs out there with really sweet deals, huge paychecks,
and minions to do the dirty work, but I have not yet met one who wasn't
covered with mud and soot, scrounging equipment and making do, sweating
and struggling like any potter -- even more so, in some cases. And take
it from somebody who has spent some time weighing the expense of an
education with the financial light at the end of the tunnel... profs are
not making that much money. It's not like we MFA students are sinking
those loan dollars into a sure thing that will pay off our loans as soon
as we graduate, and have us living in luxury.
My friend who went from MIT to Microsoft laughed at me when I got a
Masters in Folklore. "Oh yeah", he said, "That will really give you the
edge at the corporate level..." The truth is, though, I followed my
bliss, and did OK, and had the kinds of adventures that made my LIFE
very rich, even if it didn't make ME very rich.
The reason for my MFA is not to invest in a teaching credential, though
there may be a time in my life that it comes in handy. It's because
learning is GOOD thing, and I have taught myself all I can (for now.)
It's hard to dump on people who want to learn or people who want to
teach. I suppose it's the formalization of it that gets people's fur
ruffled, and the occasional case of professorial pretentiousness. But
the older I get the more I see that nobody's road is any easier that any
other. If you thrash your own path, it's hard work, but the view is
lovely. If you drive the smooth pavement, you pay the tolls. You work
hard, you get more education whether you "degree"or not. You skate by,
you get an empty credential. I wouldn't envy folks who have one, so I
don't feel cheated.
My biggest problem with hearing how "they" value degrees over
experience, "they" promote letters behind the name over fire in the
soul, is that there is no "they". WE are they.
I liked Goodman's essay "A Proposal to Abolish Grading", because he
makes the point that we have become lazy, allowing someone else's
arbitrary measurement to tell us who to hire, who to be impressed by. My
Kid Is On The Honor Roll. That athlete is an "A" student. It is a handy
shorthand for who works hard, but if you reject the notion that grades
and degrees measure the important stuff (I know I do) -- then BE the
change you want to see in the world. Hire or mentor or promote folks who
have the best heart, the best skills, regardless of their official
measurements. Level that playing field. Judge folks one at a time, based
on solid first-hand information, not on preconception and bias.
That should simultaneously dismantle the ivory tower AND put a stop to
generalized professor-bashing. An unexpected side effect might be world
peace, but I could handle that.
OK, off to clean house. For a couple of weeks every year I can maintain
the fiction that I am an efficient housekeeper, for the benefit of my
mother in law.
Yours
Kelly in Ohio
P.S. Other clayarters represented symbolically at the kiln workshop:
Lively dinner music nightly by David Hendley and the Extrudinaires...
(David, save me a googling please and send the link to how I buy my own
CD?) -- busybody smartypants phone message from mel, whose bowl Diana
had selected for me to grow her a sourdough starter in... Coffee from a
very fancy coffee maker, served in Tony Clennell's cup... Steve Burgess
and Joyce Nagata were clayarters-there-in-person.. and I brought a six
pack of Red Stripe to honor Artimator.
_______________________________________________________________
Get the FREE email that has everyone talking at http://www.mail2world.com
Unlimited Email Storage – POP3 – Calendar – SMS – Translator – Much More!
| |
|
