Friday, June 29, 2007

Fear and Watermelurns


"Watermelurn"
mixed media
2007
Not a great photo. Not my best piece. But I had to move on to other things. Actually, I did try to work on more than one urn for this show, but in the end, I had to focus on completing one, and this was it.
I'm reminded of a story in "Art and Fear", a book by David Bayles and Ted Orland, in which a class of ceramics students are divided into two groups, with one group being graded on the quantity of work they turn in, and the other group on the quality of work turned in. What emerged was this: the best work came from the "quantity" group.
"It seems that while the quantity group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."
Hmmmmm.....
It's not "dead clay" but it would be fun to see where I could take it, if I'd had more time and more urns...Frankly, I like the name best!

2 comments:

A Journey Illustrated said...

Melissa, I like it. I know I'm not seeing it in person, but you have a really great bleand of textures, shapes, and colors. The fact that you don't think it's your best work speaks to the reality that your work is growing and changing in leaps and bounds right now. You just need to catch up with yourself! Hold on....you're about to go on a ride.

melissa lanitis gregory said...

Thanks, Kristen. As usual, you see my work differently than I do. In fact, I'm thinking of calling ClayNichols and changing the price...I DO like it, but see so much more!