Beer and Berries

Not every pot I own has some intense personal connection. Take this stein, for instance: I bought it on a bit of a whim and I honestly don't even know who made it. This is a bit unusual for me, I will admit, and I also have to admit that I don't use this piece as often as I should. It's a really great beer mug!

I happened to be passing through Medicine Hat last October with a van full of my students, returning to Regina from the 1000 Miles Apart ceramics conference in Calgary. We were lucky to get a personalized tour of the Medalta facilities as they were taking down their International Cup Show. Many of the cups were sold, but this one didn't have a red dot next to it and it caught my eye.

I thought only for a moment before taking it. On the one hand I simply wanted it - it's a fantastic ergonomic form with an unusual yellow glaze, and nice but not overwhelming wood fire ash effects. On the other hand I thought of it as a learning experience for my students. I can recall the point in my educational experience where I realized that real people actually want to buy art - it was during a NSCAD xmas sale where some administrator from the college bought a whole selection of one student's work for his collection. That was sort of a watershed moment for me - I hadn't at that point in life thought much about how those things that I was making might fit into the rest of the world. My art experience up to that point had been about me wanting to make things, not about other people wanting to acquire art objects. I suppose it had something to do with my upbringing - there were no handmade or art objects in my family home and I probably hadn't internalized that other people did have them. I don't know how common my experience is but I'm willing to bet I have art students every year who've grown up their entire lives without ever having been around art.

So, in a way, I hoped I could show my students the other side of the coin by buying this piece, that there is a marketplace out there, a community of buyers, aficionados and collectors who want to see great work by new and upcoming artists (and established artists too). I realize this was one simple act on my part, and I was probably not responsible for creating any transcendental moments of clarity among the small group traveling with me. But every tiny action adds to the whole and hopefully I at least reinforced some ideas of where their art can go after they make it. I think it's at least as important to think about where your art goes as it is to think about making it. I suppose that's one of the themes running through this blog, too.

Tonight I'm drinking a Quidi Vidi IPA, and I've half filled the stein with blueberries I picked a couple days ago before I poured in the beer. It's a wonderful late summer way to drink a beer.