A POT IS A POT IS A POT >>>

A quarter century ago - I can't believe it's been that long - I was teaching art in a university down south and writing art reviews for a local newspaper, often reviewing shows in the same art department where I taught. That may seem like an obvious conflict of interest, but somehow it seemed to work back then. I wrote under the pseudonym Ken Clark. More often than not I bit the hand that fed me.

I really got in trouble with my fellow faculty members when I made a snide comment about ceramic pots in a show I was reviewing. The remark was a variation on a famous quote from Gertrude Stein. A pot is a pot is a pot.

The former chairman of the department, who had been my ceramics teacher years earlier, wrote me a scathing letter, and a close friend and co-worker who made some of the pots in the show was not overly pleased with what I had written.

Did I backtrack? Did I apologize? About as much so as the typical politician apologizes or takes back public statements. I said that it was true that some pots might be more than just pots. I said that it was possible for pottery to rise to the level of fine art but that it was rare. I think I might have given examples of ceramic artists whose work went beyond mere pottery. The only one I can think of offhand whom I might have referenced is Peter Voulkos. (Interestingly, I just now Googled Voulkos and saw pictures of pots that looked very much like one I made in my college ceramics class under that same professor mentioned above. Maybe I was influenced by those pots, but I can't remember having seen them back then.)

If there's a point to all this, it is that there is a difference between art and craft. I've mentioned this before, and I've always contended the difference is too complex to explain in the space I‘m allowed. That's an easy out for me, I know, but I'll take it. Art should be more than just attractive or witty. It should do more than sit on a shelf and gather dust. It should provoke a deep emotional response or inspire heated discussions. It should be akin to a religious experience. Not every painting or sculpture rises to that level either, but it's surprising how many do.

In the Pacific Northwest it is not pottery but glass art that reigns supreme. The existence of the Glass Museum and Tacoma Art Museum's Chihuly collection and the art in Murano Hotel in Tacoma and William Traver Gallery, not to mention the newly proposed glass museum for the Seattle Center, all give evidence to the immense popularity of glass - and 99 percent of the glass art we see is essentially pottery in a different media. I'm tempted here to say... OK, I'll go ahead and say it: glass is glass is glass.

Now you'll know that if I praise a show at Museum of Glass or William Traver I must think it is really, really good. Or maybe I'm just being generous with my comments. In that case you'll have to go see the show and make up your own mind.