Wednesday, January 05, 2011

I'm having this hand lettered on the office wall, I am.

7. Trust that you have greatness inside of you. This is the big one. 

Warren is a utilitarian potter, meaning he makes a lot of pots, mostly for everyday use. Mark and I eat off his work daily. But with each firing Warren sets a few pieces aside for museums. The pots that sing. 

When asked how he creates those pots, he said he doesn't worry about it, because he doesn't set out to make a great pot, just one that's useful. He said to trust that there's something inside you, something simultaneously human and divine, that will come out in the work. When you find a pot that exhibits the ineffable, then you've made art. It's easy to pick the functional pots from the brilliant pots. The brilliant ones glow from within. 

And yes, I'll say it: Just like him.





I stole this ruthlessly from Robin Becker's blog post about her father in law Warren.  Read the rest of it here.

And I'm not kidding about the lettering. It's going to take a while, but there will be photos.

And here's Robin's book BRAINS.  Just in case yours exploded when you read that.

11 comments:

Melissa Alexander said...

I really enjoy it when you have time to post. All sucking up aside, I know that pretty much all of your posts will be either entertaining or insightful, and sometimes both.

So thanks!

Katt said...

yowsers! it will go on my wall too, right beside
"what would you do if you could not fail"
K.

Jenny Beattie said...

Thank you. I needed those words today.

Christine said...

That sentence is going on my inspiration wall. Thanks for sharing!

Lindsay said...

LOVE! :) Her book looks awesome, too!

Anonymous said...

That's exactly what I needed to see this morning. Halle-freakin'-lujah.

ryan field said...

I once took an art elective in college where we learned how to throw pots. I figured 3 easy credits. But after spending hours two days a week that entire semester, I still couldn't get one decent pot out of the whole course. But oh, I tried. The prof gave me a B for effort in the end.

Anonymous said...

Off to have dessert and roll out the pots...Here's hoping for some GLOW!

Kristin Laughtin said...

I'm going to remember that quote. Self-doubt can be one of my biggest word-killers, as I struggle with that feeling of "What if it's not very good?" I've written stuff I thought was pretty good before by not worrying about it, and I need to trust that I can do so again.

Kathryn Peterson said...

Thanks. I really needed to hear that right now.

Anonymous said...

As a fellow potter, I have to agree! It's good to have an idea of what type of pot you're making, of course, but it's only after a weeks-long process (throwing, drying, trimming, firing, glazing, firing again) that you see the pot.