"The real voyage of discovery
consists not in seeing new landscapes
but in having new eyes."
-- Marcel Proust
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Ceramics dances on the edge of fine art and craft, combining the visual and tactile with practical application for daily life. A vessel is sculpture when sitting quietly and elegantly on a table or a bookcase. The same object is handcraft when used for food, flowers or display. What to call something that is simultaneously art and craft? Think functional sculpture -- or art for daily use.
So why bother with handmade, individually crafted bowls or mugs or vases when it is easier than ever to purchase mass-marketed, machine-made ceramic wares that are inexpensive enough to be almost disposable -- and so generic that they have no meaning? Because the mug that fits your hand, the bowl that makes your meal into an enticing, if temporary, work of art, the vase that is lovely with or without flowers -- these are small treasures that enhance the activities of daily living.
A lump of clay unformed is an opportunity for a voyage of discovery -- first for the potter who transforms it into art for daily use and then for the person whose hands and eyes give it meaning.
So why bother with handmade, individually crafted bowls or mugs or vases when it is easier than ever to purchase mass-marketed, machine-made ceramic wares that are inexpensive enough to be almost disposable -- and so generic that they have no meaning? Because the mug that fits your hand, the bowl that makes your meal into an enticing, if temporary, work of art, the vase that is lovely with or without flowers -- these are small treasures that enhance the activities of daily living.
A lump of clay unformed is an opportunity for a voyage of discovery -- first for the potter who transforms it into art for daily use and then for the person whose hands and eyes give it meaning.
