Making a simple cup out of clay is a collection of processes strung together, one after another, layered in succession. The finished piece that’s set on its plinth is a compilation of successes in carrying out processes while meeting a succession of standards.
Failure to meet any single standard along the way results in work that’s tossed onto the shard pile.
A cup shouldn’t pretend to be a cup… it should be a cup. It’s not analogous to a drawing of a figure, smudges on paper, an illusion of something real. Instead, a cup is real and needs function with the intent of purpose.
This realness of function bestows the worth of function. That recognition of worth is a limitation that is difficult to escape. Where art helps us expand the boundaries of our experience, it’s challenging to recognize how an object of function approaches that role without first being dismissed as decorative craft.
Does the role of a craft object assist in the expansion of our experience by bringing a calming serenity through the familiarity of its function?
Zygote Blum 