It looks like a good pot, but it's not!

I've been pondering "it looks like a good pot, but it's not!" since I listened to The Potters Podcast featuring my buddy the Georgia Cowboy George McCauley (https://thepotterscast.com/758.) Give it a listen- some very good thoughts. In the podcast George being one of Ron Meyers very first students in South Carolina had a visit by Ron's former teacher Franz Wildenheim. Ron had the students put their pots out for a crit. Frans walked in looked at the pots and said "they look like good pots, but they're not. At first you think -what arrogance, whadda pompus prick, how unprofessional. I don't see it that way. Here was a man that had made and looked at thousands of pots from very old, to student pots, to pots by contemporaries. He had virtually spent a lifetime making, looking at and talking about what makes good pots. I will use one of my experiences as an example. Linda Christianson came to Ontario to help build a two chamber kiln at our studio. At nights we made pots. We fired the pots in the kiln. I pulled out some plates. They had a nice casual sweep of slip on the plate. Linda picked up a plate and said to me " you really like these plates don't you?" I answered "yes"! She flipped the plate over and there were these tight little trimming marks. Our eyes met and she said nothing. I knew that these looked like good pots but were not. I'm going to show one teapot. I collect and love teapots. This teapot is one of my favs. I had to grow to love this pot. I needed to handle more work ala Franz Wildenheim. I had been going to Ron Meyers for at least a decade to fire the Ratagama. This Chuck Hindes teapot was outside on the sale rack and each year I would pick it up and never buy it. Then one firing with Chuck Hindes present he caught me handling it. He said ' You like it, it's yours! I loved Chuck! There is soooo much about this pot that newbies would scoff at- WTF!!!!!!!!. For me it exudes a joy in making! Isn't that what it's all about. The purpose of drawing is not to just put lines down on a page anymore than jogging is to get somewhere. The product should be to see more deeply

. - Chuck I paraphrased this from memory.