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