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We met Paul Greenhalgh again in Chapter Two of The Persistence of Craft.  Paul started by saying, “the genre is best defined as a way of working; an established way of making particular products using a set of technologies, processes and materials.”

Paul clearly laid out two different genres, positivist and ironic.  Positivist artists, per Mr. Greenhalgh, approach their art on one simple and innocent level with the intent to push their chosen medium to its limit as their vehicle for aesthetic expression.  Paul defines the other, “Ironic practice uses art as a vehicle to intensify and improve human experience by questioning the role and purpose of things.  It is to do with intellectual deconstruction, with deliberately undermining established or normative values in order to assert the new.” (Page 21)

Essentially, I agree with Paul.  Concluding that there are distinctly different types of artists in the world was nothing new.  Its was nice to read a well written article on the subject.  Our brief discussion about the article in Professional Practice today was entertaining (as they always are), I enjoyed hearing others classify themselves as positivist or ironic artists.

Chapter Two of Art & Fear touched on quite a few important topics.  At times I felt a little deja vu, reading something I had already read or knew- without actually having already read it.  (whoo)

One of my favorite parts of the articles discussed Graduation for art school students.  The statistic that 98% of art majors would no longer be producing art after five years seemed startling at first… then I thought about it and it is not too far fetched.

The few paragraphs on Uncertainty were everything I needed to hear.  I will probably re-read it often.

“Lincoln doubted his capacity to express what needed to be said at Gettysburg, yet pushed ahead anyway, knowing he was doing the best he could to present the ideas he needed to share.  It’s always like that.  Art is like beginning a sentence before you know its ending.” (page 20)

“What’s really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overridiging willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way.” (page 21)

Overall the reading was beneficial, I look forward to reading the entire book on my own time.  It was recommended to me a few times in the past and I never jumped on it…now I wish I had accessed it sooner.

I frequently visit Deborah Schwartzkopf’s website (www.debspottery.com).  Her website design is simple, not overwhelming the visitor with information.  Everything is clearly organized and easy to navigate.  Once a visitor clicks on her bio, statement, or contact page a strip of thumbnail images is on the right – these are great detail photographs of her pots.  The gallery page features an efficient way to display her work, the viewer does not have to wait for images to load and can roll their mouse over images quickly.  On the artist bio page, the viewer can find her resume.  There is no printable copy available and the different divisions of her resume are available as links, which take the visitor to a new page.  The font, text color, and layout of the website represent her work.

Another artist’s website I like to check routinely is Sequoia Miller’s Swimming Deer Pottery (www.sequoiamillerpottery.com).  He updates his “Upcoming” page often with entries in his “Studio Journal”.  Having pages that are updated often are important to keep interested visitors returning to the site.  His design, color, font also fit well with his personality and work.  The layout and design do not overwhelm the work, I believe they compliment it.

In chapter one of The Persistence of Craft Paul Greenhalgh discusses craft in regards thirteen different issues. The points he made regarding gender and quality caught my interest.

Greenhalgh describes how gender has played a key role in crafts over the last decades. Crafts have been used by artists to explore the ideas of gender. In the 70s, feminist artists used their practice to change the perception of the role of women. I am especially interested in the way historians and makers have “begun to explore the way that craft objects of various types carry gender connotations.” Imparting a sexual identity on an essentially ungendered object. Although the domestic environment is naturally the woman’s domain, only within the last century have women taken over the role as “cultural producer.” Greenhalgh states, “in the last two decades, the demographic trends in some countries have seen a powerful shift whereby women have come to dominate certain practices.” This is something that I see happening now. A group show I recently helped curate will feature the work of nine women and two men. There are a lot of female potters who are emerging and successful artists.

As Greenhalgh was wordy in his thirteen different discussions regarding aspects of craft, below is his comment on quality and craft…
“Quality is an a priori condition of art. Art is the realization that material has the potential to be raised into a higher state. None of us should tolerate the absence of quality. None of us should tolerate the sophist verbiage that allow those who are against standards for political and economic reasons to equalize the world out into a cheap, uniform mediocrity.” (page 16)

At one point in his essay, Greenhalgh makes a connection between poetry and craft.

“The great poets are the ones who ready poetry.” (page 7)