Being Real!
I’ve
written quite a lot about this process of mentorship and what it has meant to
me and the group. It has been so much more than learning about the process of
firing a wood kiln. I think that is what the members signed up for and in the
process got a whole lot more.
When I
taught formal education at Sheridan I often said that the real education
started after the class was over. It happened around the kiln, at the pub, at a
throwing weekend, at NCECA, having a
smoke under a tree, an informal moment somewhere outside the formal setting of the classroom. We have had so many informal moments together around the
firebox, at pot lucks, over a celebratory beer over many days, weeks and now
over 18 months.
My daughter
Robin sent me this picture for my blog. She reads me like a book and shares my irreverent
sense of humour.
What this
last part of the journey has taught is the words to the song. We spent 17
months together trying to get the music right and now we need to write the
words to the song. The dreaded Artist’s Statement. We agreed that for maximum
impact it needed to be less than 50 words.
This is not your bio. It is an opening line to introduce your work and
then let the work tell your narrative. Over my career I have read so many
Artist’s Statements that after you have read them(if you don’t dose off and
your eyes don’t cross) you wonder what the hell you just read. Artspeak as thick as peanut butter.
Wood firing
is much like the written word. It is you exposed buck naked with no clothes
on. It is like going to a nudist colony
on a
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