For me - A Way Forward with Meaningful Purpose
At this point I can say that I am seriously invested in my hobby of making things using clay and glaze and heat. I have a fully equipped studio, complete with very helpful and always supportive studio dog - Maisey.
However, this question came into my mind and I felt that I had to search for answers. What am I striving to be:-
a Potter,
a Studio Potter,
a Ceramist,
a Studio Ceramicist,
perhaps an Artist using clay as a medium, and so on.
Then, honestly - does it really matter anyway if I’m enjoying it? ….. Well, yes really! For me, there was still a niggling desire to interrogate this line of thinking further.
The definitions of these titles have morphed and changed even over the last two decades that I know about. However, currently - it seems that either ‘Studio Ceramist’ or ‘Ceramic Artist’ encompasses everything in the list above one way or another. Now, that’s good – I’m happy that we have a title now, somewhat of a current description. However, this interestingly, still didn’t give me a way forward.
Then, I came across this sentence in a book titled “A Lifetime of Works, Ideas and Teachings”, written by Robin Hopper.
“Making good functional pottery is not making art for art’s sake,
it is making art for people’s sake.”
OK – this works for me! As soon as I read this, something just clicked for me with regards to my own practice with clay. And so, it is these words that have given me a way forward with purpose. Find your own voice within the confines of the balancing act between function and form. Make little pieces of art with the idea and concept that they are to be used, touched and enjoyed every day.
