Paul and Paul Seven potters sat around a table with a bottle of wine after an excellent day of celebrating their clay compulsion through shared experience. The event had been the Arrowsmith Potters Masters Series day of varied demon- strations, discussions, slides and just being with others having the same passion. At the core of their discussion were issues raised by Paul Mathieu. These centred on questions of relevance for the future and I am sure that the discussion is exactly what Paul wanted to stimulate with his controversial keynote dinner talk. Paul Mathieu showed slides of many historical pots that used the body as a reference or feature. He emphasized the relevance these pots had to the times and cultures in which they were made and then asked us to consider pres- ent times when the functional need for pottery, especially in technological societies has been usurped by plastic. In looking for the same societal significance for present day pots as the historical examples, Paul suggested that pots should question issues in society. We were left wondering what he ate his food from at home. When Paul Mathieu wrote about Paul Davis’ talk at ECIAD in our last newsletter he was coming from the same polarized perspective as at Arrowsmith and no doubt intended to be equally polemical and stir up any easy rev- erence for invited experts. As a fellow educator, I always encourage my students to question everything - including what I say. To be sure, besides questioning the conceptual emphasis of the art school approach, much of what Paul Davis presented at ECIAD could easily evoke a nostalgia for lost simplicities of the past. For me, who had a dream of working as a studio potter with much of the trappings of this nostalgia, I find my reality working on geometric sculpture in a garden studio in suburban Burnaby - but | will be going back to Japan to work this summer.... Often our visions do get adjusted, both by the realities of existence and new influences as we travel through life. Many of us Canadians are from somewhere else or trace our heritage to other parts of the world. Perhaps this is at the root of the variety and richness of the ceramics here on which Paul Davis commented. The problem with extremes is how far you extrapolate them. Would Paul Davis have us all enduring abusive apprenticeships or tak- ing the best that this sort of training can offer us for our personal needs? Would Paul Mathieu's time-and-cultural- significance-emphasis question the validity of Glenn Gould playing Bach or Yoyo Ma playing Beethoven? What I find fascinating is that these two Pauls coming from different poles would find much to share in their private passions. Keith Rice-Jones is a potter and teacher. Each week 3 different clays will be on sale! Check out the great savings! That week’s sale prices are in effective from Tuesday at 10 am to Saturday at 6 pm. # 6 — 3071 No. 5 Road, Richmond, BC (Near Bridgeport) ~ Tel: 604-244-3734 ~ ~ Store Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10 am to 6 pm ~ The Sale Clays will be listed on our website Tuesday morning at www.themadpotter.ca 4 Potters Guild of British Columbia Newsletter May 2005