Okay, <g> this is 60% of my Contemproary Ceramic History Final Exam--a story. I thought I'd share.
Laura Davies
Dialogue
Contemporary Ceramic History
Pat Hankins
April 30, 2003
A Dialogue Between Potters
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Georgia State University School of Art and Design on this last day of April, 2003. We have brought y'all here with a time machine to take a tour of our fine school, to examine our latest collection of ceramic art on display, and to tell our audience what you think of it and other issues in contemporary ceramics."
"Audience?" a slender woman dressed in clothes straight out of the nineteenth century questioned.
"Yes, Mrs. Robineau. Her," the girl nodded to a slight woman with twinkling blue eyes, silvering blonde hair, and an enthusiastic smile who was standing a short distance away from the small gathering. "Pat Hankins; she's my teacher and a potter herself. She's listening in on our little discussion." The tall, stout, brown-haired girl flipped her long braids behind her shoulders before continuing. "My name is Laura Davies and I'm a Studio Art major with a ceramics concentration studying under Kathy King and Don McCance. I'd like to go around our little group here and have y'all introduce yourselves."
A short, chubby, balding man fingered his curly beard and looked at Laura. "Hold on, back up a minute. Did you say time machine?"
"Yes, Mr. Arneson," she answered calmly. "I contacted HG Wells and got him to bring some of you here so that I could do my homework assignment."
"HG Wells, the writer? But isn't he dead?" an elderly English gentleman dressed in a white dress shirt and a skinny black tie questioned.
"Only every so often," Laura said matter-of-factly. "Now, back to the introductions. Would you like to go first, sir?" she asked, nodding to the English gentleman. "Then we can go around the circle."
"My name is Benard Leach and I wrote the first book on pottery," he said, adjusting his glasses.
A tall, skinny man stepped forward next. "My name is Peter Voulkos and I helped make clay more accepted as an art form rather than a craft."
"My name is Adelaide Robineau and I was a potter in the nineteenth century. I made pieces like the Scarab Vase." The woman stepped back and nodded to the lady beside her.
"I'm Bob Arneson," he began. "I was a contemporary of Pete over there, part of the 'California Funk' movement, and I eventually started using self-portraits as a means to social commentary."
"Ah guess that leaves me," the man stuck his gnarled hands into the pockets of his faded overalls and moved forward to take a closer look at the pieces in the display case. "M'name's Cheever Meaders, and Ah was a what they call a folk potter up in North Gawgia. Th' Smithsonian came up to do a movie 'bout me an' my fambly and ah Dr. Burrison wrote hisself a book about us."
"The display case in front of us contains contemporary ceramic pieces from Don McCance's collection. It has everything from pieces of former graduate students here to pieces from established modern artists. On the top shelf from right to left, we have pieces by Joe Muriscal, Susie Winton, Jindra Vikova, Karry Wooten, and Jennifer Townsend." Laura absently twisted the end of one of her braids around her finger. "On the bottom, also from right to left are pieces by James Lawton, Sandy Ramirez, Phillis Winchester, Ron Meyers, Patrick Dougherty, and Steve McGuire."
The hallway was quiet for a few minutes as the gathered artists contemplated the pieces in front of them. Leach spoke up first. "Where is the handmade pottery?" he asked. "There aren't hardly any pieces in there, an what pieces that are there are ugly--much like the soulless, mass-produced pieces that are on the market. What I see the most of in there are sculptural pieces--shouldn't those be rendered in sculpture materials like bronze?" Leach pushed his wire-frame glasses up on his nose and gestured towards Ron Meyer's fish jar. "And that one just looks like something my students would produce after being in my studio for a short time--it's inferior and bad; it needs to be much, much cleaner!"
"But Mr. Leach, thanks to potters like Mr. Voulkos and Mr. Arneson here, clay isn't just for perfect little pots anymore," Laura said. "I think that's what places like Pier I are for--if you want a perfect little pot, go there. And clay is a sculpture material these days. It's flexible and really good to use for that."
"Mr. Leach, the pieces by James Lawton and Sandy Ramirez are the clean ones, and I rather like the vase by Lawton. It's not as complicated as my Scarab Vase, but it's nice." Robineau said.
Voulkos stepped forward, examined the pieces and began to smile. "I think I can see where my work influenced some of these people." He gestured towards Winton's distressed clay box, Townsend's line organic bulbous shapes on a stand and Ron Meyer's pot. "Clay is a material--a means to an end, and you can do whatever you want with it."
Cheever smiled and pointed at Patrick Dougherty's face vase. "That's an awful purty face jug," he commented. "Th' colors remind me of some that Arie and I tried to git."
Arneson was the last to speak. "It's obvious that clay has taken a more sculptural bent," he began. "It's also obvious that some of artists have turned towards the figure. I guess that, as potters, we're no longer as innocent as we once were. It looks like we're artist now after all."
"But pottery is a craft," Leach insisted.
"Ah have ta agree with him there," Cheever commented. "Th' pottery kept mah fambly fed for years."
"In my time, pottery was a craft," Robineau began. "I was just as much a craftswoman as my contemporaries, but perhaps that has changed--it was a century ago, after all."
"Ceramics is an art form," Voulkos said. "We worked hard to break out of the 'craft' label and make it that."
"Yes, y'all did and we're reaping the benefits now," Laura agreed. "This is an old argument--art versus craft--and nowadays there's a whatever works mentality. There's just as much room for loose potters like Ron Meyers as there is for tight, Japanese-influenced potters that look to your tradition, Mr. Leach. Weather it's an art or a craft simply depends on your point of view."
The amiable bickering over the subject continued as the small group turned and began to walk down the hall towards the ceramics studio.
