Bye, bye

The kickwheel sold. Yeah

Couldn't have gone to a better home.


Now, do I contribute to Public Television or the Federation for the Blind?
I give to both.

1. Public Television because I think education and information is important and it's the only outlet that is still providing the programing that was the "great promise of television".

2. The Federation for the Blind because, as children, my sister and I would play the endless argument game: "If you had to choose, would you rather be deaf or blind?"

I finally decided I would rather be deaf.
Although giving up music forever would be endlessly painful, I could still remember it. Losing my sight would be devastating.

CLAYART

How can I explain CLAYART? It is an internet community of people involved in clay: Artists, publishers, gurus, authors, equipment experts, educators, amateurs, gallery owners, hobbyists, newbies and old hands.

The physical boundaries have no end. Anywhere that an internet and computer are available, CLAYART exists. It is one enormous club. There are no dues, no initiation, no jury, only the requirements of civility and everyday grace you would exhibit and experience with fellow creatures of this planet.

CLAYART started as an outgrowth of NCECA and the personal computer. About 13 years ago, an email discussion group was formed in which people could dialogue about all things clay. It was the result of NCECA and the desire to continue the flow of information and to network with other potters.

Today it has grown into a huge population with a daily traffic that can amount to around 100 messages or more. (I really don't keep track.) That could be daunting if you set out to read every word of every email, but you quickly learn to pick and choose what is relevant to your own environment and delete (in my case, mercilessly) that which you judge can be eliminated. Most of the time, the Subject Line and the sender will tip you off as to whether you choose to read or not. I pass up raku or woodfiring, for instance.

And, a subject-word-keyed archive can be used to research a particular question that might arise, so elimination of messages doesn't usually mean they are gone forever.

Additionally, once you are enrolled, you can address the CLAYART "Brain" to ask an open question. The avalanche of replies or opinions will almost fall from the screen. We are a helpful and giving folk in the main.

It is helpful, as in any new environment, to sit back and observe the protocols and 'lurk' until you're comfortable, but it you have a bad problem or want to respond right away, that's okay too.

Mel Jacobson (or "The Mayor") runs it most of the time and serves as a basically hand-off moderator yet knows when to 'send us to our rooms' when things occasionally get too hot or protracted. In other words, telling us to 'ride that dead horse outta here.' But in a good way.

Current discussions this week have included the NCECA experience plus the discussion of the cost of attending. And what to see, where to go and the best places to eat in Philadelphia.

Take a visit. Get your toes wet. Google Clayart, click on ABOUT to get the complete background. Go to www.acers.org/clayart/ to find out how to enroll. Follow the directions and wait. It won't be long until your mailbox will be bubbling with a plethora of subjects.

Beside being an internet discussion group, CLAYART is a sub-community that meets within NCECA. Mel arranges with another hotel beside the convention hotel (after all, they have their own fish to fry) and secures a large meeting type room for us to have available throughout the time of the convention to relax, talk, show our work, present mini-programs, meet and talk in real-time with the people manifest in the flesh who we have come to know ethereally. It's nice because you feel you know them already. We all walk around NCECA with our nametags showing a red dot as a way of recognizing each other amid the masses, although people involved in clay are for the most part a truly friendly lot.



Each year the CLAYART room is something different. This year Mel arranged to have a room that was equipped with a very long bar where we could set up an example of our work. It was great to be able to see the work of many of our members and connect the work with the names.

Pictured: A wonderful teapot by Gerry Wallace on display at the bar.

Also this year, the CLAYART room presented a supurb collection of work from the American Museum of Ceramic Arts--absolute benchmark pieces marking the history of 20th Century ceramic art with works by masters of the craft. A sister show from the same collection was set up in the gallery area of the Marjon Clay Company of Phoenix. Just stunning work! (A lot of the shots from the previous posting came from that show.)

One evening, a presentation by Tom Coleman and Frank Boyden about their journey working in collaboration and their new book.


Check out CLAYART before the next NCECA.

NCECA

Just got back from the annual National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts convention in Phoenix. My head is still spinning with all the wonderfulness of it all. Too bad you can't s-p-r-e-a-d it out into a couple of week's time. It's impossible to see it all, attend every event, or meet everyone you want to talk to. But I tried.

There were galleries and other venues presenting works in clay, there were seminars, discussion group meetings, receptions, presentations, an exhibitor's hall of vendor's equipment and tools, schools representations, demonstrations of techniques, sales of clay works.

Authors signed their books, students rubbed elbows with famous artists and everywhere something to see, new people to meet, ideas to stir your brains. In short, it was a virtual clay artist's heaven.

I've been to several conventions in the past few years and I always come away with new life and new ideas. I also come away with the thought that I must make it to the one next year. Usually, they are held on alternate coasts or general areas of the US. However, next year it will be held in Philadelphia and the following one in Tampa. I will try to get to both even though it is expensive to travel, the value received professionally is golden.

CeramicArtsDaily.com

This new site looks like a good resource. I joined and elected to receive the glaze book, (what a stunner of a cover!) but if you go further into the site, there are two other choices--I'm assuming these are alternates and that all the books are not offered at once; only the choice of one download-able per subscription. The cover of the 33 Tried and True Glaze Recipes (pictured) is enough to make any potter salivate.

(Except that my printer went "BIORK" when it got to page 17 and kept wanting to reprint everything from the start all over again. Oh, you infernal machine of little brain capacity!) Had to resort to printing every page individually, but it was worth it.

I think they're ahead of the game here; much more of our interaction in the future will be through electronic networking and we're only seeing the beginnings of it. CLAYART, the email ceramic discussion group, is/was a pioneer in the establishment of a professional network. After all, artists are the ultimate cultural hunter/gatherers. We are sensitive to influences of our time; many times much more so than the general public. We are usually either at the front of the wave, 'way ahead of it or the creators of the wave in the first place.

From all I read about marketing in Europe and the U.S., social and commercial networking will become a huge part of our lives. With accessibility becoming more portable through hand-helds and future devices, we will become connected in many new ways. I already do a good bit of my shopping and almost all of my correspondence electronically. For the past 6 months I've been reading blogs pretty heavily and although there's a lot of stuff out there I'm not interested in, there's a heck of a lot more out there I would have never have had access to and people I wouldn't have ever, ever found.

It now makes a whole lot more sense to have my own web page to market & sell work. I've already gotten my electronic toes wet (zzzzttt Bad metaphor) selling to a niche of buyers. It has been surprisingly successful. The future may be a combined blog and selling site.

It's not a matter of Either/Or. It's AND. The electronic connection is just another enhancement and opportunity.