I should have been bad!

Music is probably one of the biggest influences in the blather I have written to you ove the past 15 years of this blog. The past 2 days on CBC's Radio Q with Tom Powers have had a couple of musicans that hit me right in the heart. It inspired a series of work concentrating on the circle of life which I have always made BOLD in my work both top and bottom. The circle of life isn't smooth for everyone. Some have a smooth childhood, smooth educations, smooth marriages and a smooth road all the way. Some have gravel roads, ditches and mountains to climb to get out of what life dealt them. I really enjoyed the articulate and introspective interview Tom had with Neon Dreams Frankie Kadillac. Incidently Neon Dreams won Breakthrough Band of the Year at Canada's Juno Awards.
A very cool looking couple of dudes. In the interview it was revealed that Frankie's mum had been evicted from almost everywhere they lived for not paying the rent. He never knew where he would sleep or live. He slept in closets. He said he should have been bad but music saved him. Wow! He recognized when he needed help and sought counsel, meditation and soul searching. Here is a taste of their music- - House Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tht0E8tvA3E I hope music gives Frankie as much of a life as clay has given me. Today Tom interviewed Robert Findley concerning his new album Sharecroppers Son. Son of a poor sharecropper he became a carpenter and became legally blind at age 60. That should have been bad and I mean real BAD! That's when his music took over and he is being toted as the best soul/blues singer today. This struck a chord with me today. I will paraphrase him but it went like this "people want to be where you are but they don't want to go through what you had to do to get there!" Here is a taste of his music "Souled out on you" which I love from Sharecroppers Son. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA0w8Rc-7es Here are some of the pots I made over the past couple of
music days. The rocks and bumps are the result of the shit Mr. K gave me to wedge into the clay. Anybody got a closet for me to sleep in?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I would say you are probably lucky to have never had to have slept in a closet. It is amazing the people that have such adverse things thrown at them, but they persevere and become much more amazing human beings than most of us do. We would all do well to think about how fortunate we are for all we have, and honor those that have had a tragic and painful childhood/growth period. You may have, we the reader don't know that. The ability of people to overcome adversity and stay on the straight path, when other options would be so much easier, are truly amazing individuals. Here is to learning more about people like that and honoring them.

Jamie
Tony Clennell said…
Nicely said Jamie. I've always said that a potter should live their lives generously. Best, T
Anonymous said…
DON’T WORRY, BE SQUIRRELY! squirrels enjoy our feeders!

https://www.thesquirrelshop.com/feeders-in-action/
Anonymous said…
Well JK Rowling makes it seem so easy for someone to be raised in an abusive household and locked in a cupboard under the stairs to just get over it. Isn't that what we're told, suck it up and get over it. It gets better?
Anonymous said…
In honor of pride month.... Sid Henderson
Sid is a queer artist based in Arizona, a ceramic sculptor who also does a bit of throwing.

https://www.instagram.com/sid.henderson.art/?hl=en

https://www.sidhenderson.com/
Anonymous said…
Celebrating Pride in the month of June, introducing Nick Kakavas

The inspiration for his art started on the wall of his childhood bedroom, which was covered in magazine cutouts of shirtless male stars. The obsessions of a self-described “chubby gay kid who idolized male celebrities” evolved into a critique of the modern media’s interpretation of the male body.

https://www.instagram.com/rickrak/?hl=en
Anonymous said…
Happy Pride to all the potters and ceramicists around the world.

Lets's celebrate the potter Scott Barnim, who finds himself now dating a very nice man, a place He could never imagine himself being in 40 years ago.

https://www.thespec.com/entertainment/2018/10/20/a-life-in-pottery.html

https://scottbarnimpottery.com/
Anonymous said…
Samuel Leighton-Dore "A genuinely uplifting and generous talent for the Australian queer community to be proud of."

https://www.samuelleightondore.com/

https://www.instagram.com/samleightondore/?hl=en
Anonymous said…
The Ants & the Grasshopper

http://read.gov/aesop/052.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i6mbw6_2IU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_svBrlehmMo

In Aesop's famous fable, The Grasshopper and the Ant, all summer long the ant labours away and when winter comes, she has enough food to survive. All summer long the grasshopper enjoys herself and is starving the next winter. The moral of the story is likely to have burnt itself into our consciousness, that relaxation can be dangerous.

But do these fears stand up to closer examination?
Anonymous said…
We are intensely vulnerable physical beings, a complicated network of fragile organs deeply affected by the vagaries of our outer and inner worlds.

Kiki
Anonymous said…
Celebrating more queer ceramicists, introducing Brent Pafford.

His aim is to situate his work at the intersections of tactility and fragility, anxiety and absurdity: to create objects which demand physical interaction, and that react to contemporary dialogues of queerness, embodying his own explorations of queer identity and belonging, the commodification of queer identity, and the reduction of queer meaning into object, form, and gesture.

https://www.brentpafford.com/who

https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/ceramics-monthly/ceramic-art-and-artists/ceramic-artists/2021-emerging-artist-brent-pafford/

https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/author/brent-pafford/

R.F.
Anonymous said…
Ben Peterson is a ceramic artist. His work explores themes of masculinity, sportsmanship, and queer identity through the intersection of sculpture.

https://www.benpeterson.com/

https://www.instagram.com/beingbenpeterson/?hl=en
Anonymous said…
Seattle artist Jeffry Mitchell -Gay folk artist
Mitchell’s oeuvre, with its many allusions to the histories of art and ceramics, and to theories of gender, queerness.

https://www.instagram.com/jeffrymitchell/?hl=en

Anonymous said…
Ask yourself if what you’re doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.

I agree, goodbye so what pots, and hello bicycle journey adventures.

Bunny
Anonymous said…
Andrew Leo Stansbury
PRONOUNS
They/them; he/him.
Andrew is a queer ceramic-based performance artist from Cuero and San Antonio, Texas.

https://andrewleostansbury.com/
Anonymous said…


Dustin Yager is a ceramic artist whose work deals with popular perceptions of pottery, taste, and class. Combining traditional materials and methods with explicit imagery, depictions of gay sex become cheeky adornment for his finely thrown porcelain forms. Yager actively engages with queer theory in his work.

https://www.ceramicsandtheory.com/

https://dustinyager.com/home.html
Anonymous said…
Belgian artist Eric Croes' work is inspired by Les Cadavres Exquis (Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver), which are done based on drawings I do with my boyfriend Simon, who is an illustrator.

http://www.ericcroes.be/

https://www.instagram.com/eric.croes/?hl=en
Anonymous said…
Sensitivity and awareness are important. If it is meaningful in your life show it. Don’t ever be disrespectful, it shows your lack of compassionate awareness. Think about others first.
Anonymous said…
Talk about a major fuck up.

Popular Posts