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| Comment: October 2008
What Do We Seek? What Are We Offered?
by Jack Troy
We had seen the video and read the book; we hoped the artist's talk might reward our curiosity about the sources of the work. Instead, a matter-of-fact presentation accompanied by low-grade slides documenting a lifetime's achievement left us no less respectful of such obvious accomplishment, yet disappointed, and wondering more than ever about questions we hadn't realized we'd brought with us until they hadn't been addressed. The absence of a question-answer period afterwards only made it easier to frame our queries on the long drive home:
"Your presentation emphasized a strict chronology of accomplishments, but didn't mention how such projects made you feel, or whether there might be an emotional, or 'felt' source guiding the making. Could you introduce us to your muse?"
"As you reflect on your career, could you mention how your process-choices-various clays, firing methods and other media-seemed especially appropriate for expressing the ideas you had?"
"Has your reading contributed to what you make? (Can you imagine how your work might differ if you didn't know how to read?) Have any specific projects been influenced by scientists, authors, composers or other artists?"
"If you had to choose a place and time whose art affects you with a particular resonance, what would that be?"
"How important is it for you to put into words what you articulate in clay and the other media you use? Is the work itself expressed in your 'first language,' and talk about it only a poor translation?"
"Could you talk a little about your sense of continuity; how, over the years, some aspects of your approach to working may have become strengthened and more resolute, and others more resilient to innovation and change?"
When an artist's work "speaks to us," it may be in a voice that is forthright, and immediate, or it may be more ambiguous, causing us to seek greater clarity. It may also raise questions, and while we may invent our own answers, or read critical commentaries or interviews, we welcome an opportunity to hear the maker thinking out loud by engaging in dialog. Those conversations may deepen our understanding of the work's origins and help clarify the maker's intentions. When that doesn't happen, we may feel our expectations deflating and wonder if our curiosity about the sources and fruits of originality can exceed an artist's willingness to engage in discussions about the circumstances that bring the work into being. Of course we can also wonder whether our inquisitiveness is pointless.
From the artist's perspective, questions may arise that might not ever occur, and with them the opportunity to consider a new perspective beyond the circumstances of one's own motivation.
The chance to ask questions of artists takes us out of the cheap seats in the stadium's bleachers; it's a pass into the dugout where we can be our own reporters. Does an artist have any obligation to discuss or respond to queries raised by those who are curious enough to ask? The answer begins with the standard phrase we have come to expect from anyone whose attendance at workshops, lectures and panel discussions lets them take an active role in discussing why things are as they are, or seem to be: "It all depends..."
the author Jack Troy is a potter and author in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. To see his pots and read more of his written work, see www.jacktroy.net/.
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