Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Nothing is new

I came across this blog http://these2words.blogspot.com/ this morning by way of Michael Kline and at first thought it was a photo of my houses. But I knew that couldn't be, I never make this many of something at one time! As I scrolled down I saw more and they are really fun. I love the surface treatments she is using. I've never seen this blog before, but she has some very nice work. As she said in her post this is a new body of work for her. The functional pottery Vicki makes is also very nice and these little houses work well with the cups and bowls.
A couple of posts ago I wrote about how turtles would probably be showing up all over the studio since Charlotte was putting them on hers and how a friend of mine described it as heightened awareness. I have never seen Vicki's blog, but our house forms are very similar. A house is a house, a bowl is a bowl, a turtle is a turtle....... It's funny how so many of us can take the same form and give it so many different lives. At first I was a little disappointed seeing these houses and realizing that I'm not so original and I know there are other potters that have used house forms, but I love making them and I just have to figure out how to make them my own. Just as every potter takes a bowl or a mug or a teapot and gives it their own signature. There really is nothing new is there!

9 comments:

Laura Farrow said...

bringing YOUR vision to it is what makes it new! Your forms are about YOU afterall. Other people's houses are about other people. I took my cookbook/sketchbook to Penland thinking I was being all original, and ended up sitting next to a guy who made clay cakes! You know, CakeBoy.

Kim Hines said...

i love vicki's work, i've been reading her blog for a while now. your work never made me think of her houses, or vice versa if it makes you feel any better. yes, both are houses but they're completely different. ;)

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Laura, you are so right. I was reading how Vicki's houses came about and her inspiration comes from a whole different place than mine.
Kim, nice to hear that you didn't relate the two, I was afraid I was unconsciously ripping someone off!

Patricia Griffin Ceramics said...

Hi Tracey - Your houses have their own look and feel. They just can't help but be "home" to your own vision. Keep on keepin' on! They're great!

vicki hartman said...

hi tracey,

i was so surprised to see this post and your houses! they are very similar! i really appreciate your thoughts around it all, how it is a form, like a mug, that we can bring our own voice to. and that is a big question i have been asking myself lately: what can i bring to these that says something new?

i really love your dry, deep surfaces. the simple house form is so open to manipulation...or maybe i should call it expression. i love all your work and i am glad to know of you now! i will be back to your blog. we can share house progression. also, i don't think you should stop with these, even when you do get back on the wheel. for me, right now, i think i would be happy if i never get back on the wheel. (but it always calls!)
warmly, vicki.

Hollis Engley said...

Coincidentally, I found Vicki's site yesterday, too. And of course I thought of you and Susan Elena Esquivel, dwelling potters all. And all different.

Tracey Broome said...

Hi Vicki! Nice to have a new blogger joining me along this journey! I hope it was ok that I put your houses on my blog. After I did it, my husband said I should have asked permission. If you don't want the photo up I can take it down. It was just so funny when I saw them on your blog, trying to remember when I made so many houses :) I like your idea of making them wall hangings. Hi Hollis, yes I remember Susan's dwellings, they are so nice! And then there is Mary Fischer as well. Guess a house is such a common item to think of since most of us live in them. It would be fun to see a 500 Houses book!

vicki hartman said...

hi again tracey,
no problem on the photo! i am glad you put it up, i get to meet new people!
take care, vicki

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing some new work which is really neat. I wonder what it is about the house form that is so comforting and yet to intriguing...