is {oo focused on trying to reduce British Columbian experi- ence to an alien form. In Malraux's terms, British

Columbia potters are not “artists who create forms” but are primarily “artisan(s) who reproduce forms.” (p.310)

Home makes the point that in 1944, all but three of the pot- ters surveyed in her article were trained in courses either at the Vancouver School of Art, now Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, or in courses mun by the Victoria Board of Education. Today,, there are far more opportunities for the recreational potter 10 gain training experience, primarily in courses run by the vanous community colleges or local recreational authorities. However, professionally oriented courses are still the venue of a very limited number of in- Stitutions. Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design is clearly the leader in offering professional programs in ceramics while others, Vancouver Community College, Capilano College and Malaspina College have developed similar programs. These institutions have clearly left their mark on the potters working in British Columbia today,

The academic orientation of the programs offered by these instiutions appears to have militated against the develop- ment of 2 viable pottery manufacturing process in British Columbia. (This may also be due to a lack of native mate- rials Suitable to large scale manufacture, but there is evi- dence that this is not altogether true.) The graduates of these programs are onented toward individual, narcissistic expression of the artist rather than the process of manufac- turing. This appears to be derivative of the British Studio potter movement advanced by Bernard Leach. Leach's admiration ofAsian ceramics may also account for at least some of the emphasis one finds in these forms of pottery available in from B.C. potters. The very framework re- quired for the inclusion of ceramics programs in academic institutions constricts the boundaries of pottery develop- ment in B.C. by laying down limits of acceptable expres- sion derived from the historical materials that must be in- cluded in a course aimed at training professional artists.

The somewhat pedantic argument over whether ceramic creations are art or craft will likely continue as long as the community is unable to find its own means of expression in the form of a style. The achievement of a style that breaks with tradition and expresses a unique reality may well be the point of closure thal defines art.

MADE IN CLAY NOTES

Flanning for Made In Clay continues to proceed , Arrangements have been made for the tent, tables for the consignment area and many other picky details. VVe still need your bisque ware for the Raku demonstration on the weekend of April 5. Also, Rosemary Amon needs the balance of workshift sheets to be turned in and Keith Rice-Jones advises that the information sheets for the info table have been very slow in coming in, Time is getting short for those who have not completed these tasks.

Keith Rice-Jones advises that he will be handling this year's billeting requirements for Elsa Schamis. If you need a place to stay during MIC, contact Keith at 522. 8803 in Bumaby,

All those who have entered the Flower Pot Contest please consider bringing your pots to the Gallery of B. C, Ceramics for the month of May. To try to provide you with some return for your effort we will set up a display of the pats you were planning to submit to the contest. Limit is four pots per entrant. The Gallery will restrict commission, for these submissions only to 30%. The Gallery manager will be responsible for determining the selection of pots for display.

THE “DO IT THE HARD WAY” SYNDROME -sTan CLARKE-

Lately there has been a good deel of talk, mostly by col- lege teachers, about getting back to the old fundamen- tals...dig your own clay, mine your own feldspar, refine your own zinc and well your own water if you want to make an honest pot, But this seems to apply only to the pottery craft. | have yet to hear anywhere that the weavers must raise their own sheep, shear them for their wool, cut their own wood to make their own looms before they can weave an honest blanket. Or the batik maker raise his own bees and milk them (or whatever they do) to put on a piece of linen woven by hand from flax grown himself. Must the Jeweler mine his own gold and diamonds to make a better pendant or would Heifetz play a better tune on his fiddle if he built it himself?? Not bloody likely.

This clay - digging -feldsper - mining bit is great fun; that ! will admit, and it's a great way to keep students busy; dig- ging, drying, weighing, screening, mixing etc., and it does help teach the geology of clay and feldspar, but for the producing potter or someone who is trying to make his pottery pay, it's just a mighty time waster, and time is the one thing the potter is nearly always short of.

Iwas severely criticized In the last issue of “Western Pot- ter” by Fred Owen (of Douglas College) for “turning off potters from finding and using their own clay. | was later again severely criticized (well not really severely) by Don Hutchinson (Langara College) at a Potters Guild meeting for discouraging potters fram digging and mixing their own clay (Something to do with Aunt Martha's peaches which escaped mé) but as a potter of some twenty-two years, who has been thru the mill, | still say; if you want to have a little fun experimenting with the clays from our back yard and the rocks on the cliff ... feel free, but if you are plan- ning on producing any amount of pottery, forget it.

What | actually said to the Nanaimo Seminar was that, with the exception of an area in the Cariboo country and in the Sumas mountain area, there is no GOOD clay in this region of British Columbia, and | still say so- In 1956 | was in the ceramic supply business. Faireys were mot yet packaging clay and Plainsman were not in business, so, to