Thursday, October 23, 2008

Le snore and le glory: I am a very late bloomer



(le snore white plate and le glorious frog plate by Gary Rith)
I just read an extraordinary article in the New Yorker about LATE BLOOMERS. We assume genius is expressed early, when in fact, a lot of innovators plod along their whole lives experimenting with creative ideas before getting anywhere. I am a plodder. I am an experimenter. So, creative innovation can come either way: your extraordinary young genius or your late bloomer.
Case in point. There is a fellow in town here who picked up clay just a couple years ago and his teapots have been featured at the Smithsonian (the biggest honor in the US for craft) and in a current exhibit here in town, my 95 dollar teaset (the piggy thing on the right of the page here!) is next to his THREE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR TEAPOT which doesn't even have cups, let alone creamer and sugar.
So, I shake my head at that. I have been fiddling around OVER 25 YEARS and slowly moving down the creative road, and this guy just blazes onto the scene. It is most reassuring to know that it was true of Picasso and Cezanne---Picasso's great work came early, Cezanne's LATE. Hallelujah!
OK, these plates here are an example. I glazed the white and blue one, and said 'hmm, this is OK, but what if I experimented here, added a frog, and then a puddle of blue surrounded by GREEN?'. That is really the kind of sloooow plodding steps I take, but look what happened, look what I learned!

8 comments:

Wep said...

I like them both!!!

That guys just a big poo poo head!

Mother of Invention said...

"and this guy just blazes onto the scene." Shouldn't that be "GLAZES"?!!! HA! My pottery humor!

I like yours better and you have a more interesting blog!!! He doesn't have a Penny or Spike on his! (not that I've even checked!)

Farmer*swife a/k/a Glass_Half_Full said...

No Fair! He's a cheater! Cheater-cheater, Pumpkin Eater!

You play fair and eat Apple Bread. Whole better league!

Where's the Santa and snowflakes? Gimme sumthin' for the Holidays GR! Ooh, Santa Cow! ;-D

Farmer*swife a/k/a Glass_Half_Full said...

Oh. And, you already know? But, that light green piggie tea set is my fav! FAV!

[He doesn't even have cups...sheeze. Loser. How are we supposed to use the tea pot.

Happy Thursday!

Knight said...

I imagine your house to be so fun. I think the new handles are proof of this.

Anonymous said...

That was a fantastic article. (And now I want to read Ben Fountain's collection of stories.)
Thanks, Gary
EH

Anonymous said...

Pond Plate with Froggie = Brilliant.

My house is full of late bloomers. I didn't know it was a bad thing. Oh, right. It's not! (Also, it probably keeps me from being a young grandmother.)

Miss Heather said...

There's nothing wrong with being a late-bloomer!! And the frog bowl ROCKS... because, you see, YOU ROCK!