Dave Finkelnburg on wed 3 sep 03
electric oxidation versus gas reduction fired....
To those interested in the philosophical side of clay art,
Notice the inclusionary "clay art" there? I'm trying not to leave
anyone out...
I really haven't time for this...need to be working on marketing my
pots...can't quit thinking about this though...got to get it out of my
mind...got to write it down...maybe get you thinking about it? :-)
Speaking of marketing...since that's on my mind at the moment...I've
found that how I make my art from clay gives me a rich source of interesting
things to tell customers. That I sometimes glaze with local volcanic ash or
with wood ash from the fireplace or decorate with slip clay from a roadside
or distort pots with my hands or press clay into a mold...and have success
in making good pots...sometimes... fills me with enthusiasm....sometimes
even makes me positively ecstatic. And some of my customers smile and buy
my work in part because my good humor over my methods and materials makes
them happy too.
However, it is my biased opinion that how I make clay art is, in the
essence of time, say a millennium from now, far less important than what I
make. So whether I wheel throw, slip cast, extrude, hand-build or even do
all four on the same piece, whether I fire in an electric kiln in oxidation,
a gas kiln in reduction, a bonfire, a pit fire, an electric reduction
kiln...I am still just using tools to make art. The tools may range from
the most simple fingers and opposable thumb to very complex
computer-controlled kilns but in the end they are still tools.
So debate and argue labels and semantics all you want. Just keep in
mind, what you call materials and tools, and methods, how you categorize
them, how your praise or criticize them, is far less important than what you
do with them. We all know that when you are refreshed, you are going to go
back and concentrate on trying to make more art.
Some day, in the far distant future, when the smoke clears and you're
not around to tell your story about making that art, then what you have made
will have to tell all.
The tools will not matter.
The materials will not matter.
The art you made will matter.
Good potting!
Dave Finkelnburg on another gloriously sunny day in Idaho
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