Almost 8 years ago I first sat down at a pottery wheel and like a lot of potters, became consumed by this unique craft almost instantly. Since then I knew ceramics was for me. I have been creating functional pottery while developing what I thought was my own sense of style. I tried my hand at every piece of functional ware I could think of through those years, most of them coming as requests from friends and family. I worked on various firing techniques and researched uncountable glaze tests to better understand what was really happening to this material throughout the numerous processes. I loved all of this, and I still love all of this, but I finally came to a shocking revelation the other day. While looking at galleries online, I was impressed by the number of artists represented and even more by the quality. So many great pots which means there are a lot of great potters. This occurrence called to me. Why are we making more and more pottery? We are told that everything had been done before and we agree, yet we still continue to create what I guess would be duplicates. Have all the ideas been created? This would mean we are just adding to a pile of ceramics that is 10,000 years old.
I can't tell you how many people I hear talk about their work and how they make it for the public to use. They enjoy the connection of something they have created with the user. But today we have enough pottery in the world to last forever with the mass-produced items and the hand made objects. So in a way are we not creating these objects over and over and over, for what? We could all stop making pottery and everyone would still find that perfect bowl or mug a thousand years later. Now don’t get me wrong I love pottery and making functional objects. I just see there are a lot of great potters that make great mugs. That is a lot of competition and a lot of time to develop the skill in which they possess. So why not make something that won’t be compared to the functional objects. No matter what the mug looks like, how it is fired, or used it will always be a mug. It is stuck with that label forever. Pitchers pour and plates hold food. So why are we stuck in this idea of functionality? Why not push it to something that thrives off the concept and YOUR idea. This way the art is perceived how it was intended. Something that in theory nobody has done before. These ideas spawn into more and more debates and make me question if I really should be making functional pottery.
