Post #7 Love Fest

“…and if I offended you, GOOD…”  --Eminem

It may seem a bit strange or insincere to begin a post titled “Love Fest” with this Eminem quote, but give me half a moment, and I will explain my point.

Garth and I are perhaps as similar as we are different.  We are looking at the same subject (Craft’s health in the United States) from two distinctly different vantage points.  I see it from the trenches making pots while Garth looks from the perspective of a distinguished art critic on the sideline who is both eloquent and gifted.  Both of us are thoughtful and articulate in our respective fields, and both of us find tremendous vitality in the recording artist Marshall Mathers, who goes by Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady.  (Yes, I received my autographed copy of Shards in the mail a few days ago and was slightly surprised but delighted to discover that Garth is a fan.)

Assumptions are always a bit risky, but I suspect that Garth admires the notoriously hardcore rapper for some of the same reasons I do.  Eminem is a consummate craftsman with respect to both his writing and incredibly sharp delivery.  He is witty and engaging as he dissects the hypocrisy he sees in mainstream culture, his own community and his (sometimes very dark) personal world.  With derisive contempt, he weaves his themes, jokes and rhymes in a seemingly effortless flow with conviction, passion, and integrity.  He manages all of this with perfectly sincere insincerity. 

Of course when wicked skill intersects with an uncanny knack for telling the truth, no matter how unpleasant, controversy and misunderstanding are soon to follow.  But when it all comes together properly it forces us to examine reality from another point of view, and either agree or disagree.  Eminem is certainly not for everyone, particularly those people who are unaccustomed to stinging critique and salty language.  I don’t pretend to be from his world, but he invites and sometimes forces us to look at unpleasant truths from his point of view, and I appreciate that.  He is completely unafraid to offend people with his thoughts, and perhaps this is his great intellectual strength.

Garth’s willingness to give an address at Portland Oregon’s Museum of Modern Craft that boldly declares the craft movement to be dead shows him to be fearless of the craft community’s pettiness and contempt.  He is confident in his own intellect and his ability to analyze his subject matter with genuine concern as well as derision.  He can see it both ways and say it both ways, without being insincere.   This is not a criticism of Garth: I am being quite serious.  As another of my favorite American poets once wrote: 

“Do I contradict Myself?  Very well then I contradict myself.  I am Vast.  I contain Multitudes.”  --Walt Whitman

This is a subtle and somewhat risky walk he is taking, but I think in many ways he pulls it off with “pluck and vitality,” to borrow Garth’s phrase.

Perhaps Garth may recognize some trace of my fearless desire to speak the truth as I see it.  After all, I started this blog by telling the preeminent Ceramics critic and scholar in our country to go drink from a urinal (Duchamp’s “Fountain”).  And so I have found myself playing the same game that many critics choose to play.  If you want to be heard and taken seriously, you have to take risks, speak provocatively and put yourself on the chopping block.  By responding to my criticisms and recognizing that underneath my bluster was a need to “play with ideas and be counted” Garth has basically tipped his hat to me, and for that I am grateful.

Then of course he took me to the cleaners for bad form (not reading him carefully enough), and so my response to him now is: you’re right.  I wasn’t reading you carefully enough and I have misjudged your sincerity.  You may seem imperious without actually being imperious.  You are not required to have any respect for what you might refer to as “traditional pottery” any more than I have to love a ceramic sculpture of Michael Jackson with his Chimp, Bubbles.  Our difference in taste ultimately does not matter, because what we might agree on may be more important: craft today faces perils.  I cannot agree that it or its “movement” is dead but let's leave that for now.  I am certainly no “Ruskin or Morris,” but perhaps my “intellectual teeth” are just emerging from the gum now.  

I will continue with this blog and plan to address Garth’s criticisms in greater detail, focusing on a point or two with each post as I move forward.  I welcome Garth to continue reading and contribute again if he would like.

I would like to thank Garth Clark from the bottom of my heart for having the courage to offend me strongly enough about my chosen profession that I am beginning to awaken and shake off the moss that has gathered here.  Whether I ever go on to accomplish anything by arguing in favor of the intellect of craft, as I try to serve the still living and relevant craft movement is less important to me now than the fact that Garth’s perspective has returned me once again to a path of self-discovery and intellectual growth.  That is a gift that I certainly hope will continue to grow and develop through my life.  Garth, I add to your many honorary degrees and accolades one of my own: you are now officially in the Matt Jones pantheon of mentors. :) 

And though you feign cynicism well, I know you have a heart.  I will be reading you more deeply, even as I continue to take some of your arguments to task on the blog.

Thank You for the Dance, 

And Peace be with you,

Matt Jones