ART or CRAFT A tired old cliché like "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" remains applicable even as our perceptions of the world around us change with growing speed. What determines if an object is a piece of art? I don’t think there could be an immutable answer to such a question because it seems like art is whatever the society of the day determines it to be. When it comes to hand made objects it’s never been a question in my mind. I'm of a rather simplistic view that the maker has put something of himself into that piece and that to some audience, maybe large maybe small, it will be art. There has been a great deal of emphasis placed on the functional as of late and there are many collectors who want only pieces that will function as usable objects. There are, however, many very beautiful sculptures made in clay and a great variety right here in B.C. My own collection has a fair number of "non- functional” pieces though they do serve to bring great pleasure to me and others who get to see them. One of the first clay sculptors I knew here in Vancouver is Bill Rennie and it was his work that determined I had become a collector. Bill asks the question "why does everything made of clay have to seem like it holds something " and I know he has some well developed opinions about art and craft. I have many pieces of sculpture by Bill, certainly the most impressive being a to scale replica of St. Basils Cathedral in Moscow. It comes in 36 pieces and is a beautiful sight. It was my mortgage for a couple of years about 15 years ago and has been seen in a number of shows including the retrospective of Bill's work at the Canadian Craft Museum several years ago and more recently as the skyline behind his “where I was brought up" at the Surrey Art Gallery in 2004. Another downtown artist I like very much is Danny Kostyshin. He is a contemporary of Bill Rennie, both having been at Vancouver School of Art in the late 1970s. Danny makes some very wonderful bowls and vases and his great glazes certainly speak to me as art. He has, however, done a good deal of sculp- tural clay and with projects like his plate series that had the work of other local artists combined with his ceramics has clear- ly married art and craft. My personal favorite of Danny's work is a series of wall plaques inspired with the drawings from July/August 2006 Michael Morris's German Boy series. These are beautiful "wall art" and I am fortunate to have 2 variations of these. Ron Tribe was born in England in 1927 and when he came to Canada he was in the field of marketing. He is older than Bill and Danny but I believe his artistic career in clay began in the 70s. His work is very sculptural, architectural, and grew and changed over the decades up to his last major work of wall chargers with airbrushed glazes inspired by contemporary, Scandinavian, Haida, and Japanese art. These were produced in 2001 and I believe are still shown at Circle Craft on Granville Island. My favorite of Ron's work is both sculptural and func- tional being a vase which looks like a wonderful futuristic pago- da. I am also inspired by his sculpture reminiscent of Hans Coper standing as a strong piece of fine art. There are others in my collection of sculptural clay some of whom I have shown in previous articles. A Gordon James figure continues to be one of my favorites and a multiple sided figure by Jack Hardman. Thomas Kakinuma is well known for his birds but he also did beautiful cats and a dog and pen- guins and even a charm- ing pair of monkeys. I'm always happy to see you, or hear from you, or receive addi- tions or corrections to my often word of mouth information. I'm at DoDa Antiques at 434 Richards St. in Vancouver Mon.- Sat. 10:00am-5:30pm, (604)602-0559, email me at jdis@ telus.net or check out my new website at www.dodaan- tiques.com. John Lawrence Clockwise from top left: St Basils Cathedral by Bill Rennie Wall plaque by Danny Kostyshin Vase by Ron Tribe Sculpture by Ron Tribe Photos: Martin Hunt Potters Guild of Britis’ Columbia Newsletter