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Pastimes : ceramics-clay-pottery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AugustWest who wrote (20)	11/27/2001 8:05:44 PM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 338

From the first time I held a ball of clay, it filled me with a wonderful sensation I still experience to this day every time I pick up a hunk of moist clay. Whew. Don't I know that feeling. I have that same feeling with wood, some kinds of metals, glass... paints and paper. It's funny. I get EXCITED because I can often start feeling or seeing the finished object or work in my thoughts before I am barely started. I agree too.. it probably is in our blood. Both sides of my family have a lot of artists or artistic types in them... My brothers and I are all artists/musicians/writers... it's what we DO... and what we want to do. Just too bad that the arts don't pay better... Being an artist is, in many ways, a strange thing. Everyone LOVES to look at art, hear music, read good writing, but few people are willing to pay well for it... and yet they'll plunk down a hundred bucks to pay a lawyer for a 15 minute consultation, or some such thing. It's sort of creepy. I think maybe it's because people think that creating art is fun... that we all do it just to amuse ourselves or something. I guess artists are expected to make beautiful music, objects, poems, stories for others for free...and that we somehow live on air and don't need to worry about paying bills and such. hee hee... Ain't that the truth?!! (o: You don't get rich, or even pay the bills very comfortably these days being a craftsman. I'd venture to say 90% of the american population would be just as content paying 99 cents for a machined coffee mug at K-Mart(made in China) than spend $7-$10 for one hand crafted by someone who truely enjoys what they do. Well, that is very true. You already know how I feel about pottery... I can't quite explain my attraction to good pieces, but they speak to me. I just about always hear one piece crying, "Pick me!! Pick me!!" louder and more persistently than all the rest in a studio...and that one might come home with me. But you're right... each piece has a piece of the artist within it. I know a lot of the potters who did the pots or bowls that I own and I can pretty much "see" them in the pieces they have made.. can see something of their aesthetic "self" inside of the pieces... Can see one person's minute attention to detail, that extends out to the way they have their studio organized... another person's flamboyant use of glazes and the Matisse-like quality of their studio and the gardens around them. It's actually pretty fascinating. But you're right... not everyone sees these things, or appreciates them. One thing I do know is that artists are usually the most appreciative admirers of other artist's works. I will try to show you some carvings soon. I am just working my way through a bunch of have-to-do stuff at the moment, but by next week, life should be more like normal again (I hope). I would like to see the water fountains that you make...except...maybe I'd better not.. given my history for bringing home anything that calls out to me!! (o: BTW, it's the "water-beetle bowl" potter's new studio opening show this weekend. Should I go?? Can I afford to?? lol... That's a drag about your friend but who knows... perhaps it will work out anyhow (?). I am a great believer in karma... What will be will be... and sometimes things take unexpected turns... we will talk some more. -croc