First Essay Greenbergs Theory of Modern Painting

Katie Sowards - ARTH260

9/30/2015 Edited 12/8/2015
My work consists of unique glazes, unique shapes, no uniformity, and is not perfection.
My work is thought about, sketched, debated and in the end its what happens when my fingers,
hands, and arms are in contact with the clay that makes the piece what it is. No amount of
planning will allow much of anything to be planned. My work has a confused sense of
identity. There are times when I am throwing an item on the wheel that the question of its
identity allows the piece to transform into more than I had planned. I have great plans to make a
cup, bowl, plate, or other item. When it comes down to being able to take the time to focus and
create, all planning goes out the window and what I make may not even have a definite function
when its finished.
My personal tenet that I use from modernism and formalism is the self-critical method.
The self-critical method is using the techniques and practices in ceramics to criticize the
techniques and practices of ceramics. This keeps the work and analysis of my work pure and
true to the discipline. I tend to work with the ideal of rejecting the classic styles of pottery,
striving to make something unique and quirky.
I work best with chaos and change that comes across with my pieces that I am able to
make, trim, glaze, and embrace them. As with most mediums in art, there are plans and
adjustments needing to be made to allow the piece to grow into what you are comfortable with,
but in the end only the creator can choose when it is completed.
With the piece that I have decided to showcase in this essay, there is knowledge of the
angles, and shapes made within the piece but it is coupled with the no pattern in the glazing
techniques that cause questions to be asked. There is chaos and change that happens while just
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First Essay Greenbergs Theory of Modern Painting

Katie Sowards - ARTH260
9/30/2015 Edited 12/8/2015
approaching this piece, there are the sharp angles that make the viewer question if it is able to be
touched and manipulated. There is also the functionality that comes into question when you
examine it closely and question if it can be actually used. This all makes this piece more of a
modern art piece then a function piece of pottery.
I participate in the concept of self-criticism, and this is apparent to all that know me. This
is shown by the lack of uniformity of the glazing my items. Each piece I make is non-uniform,
lacks function, and brings up the question of its specific use. The ambiguous nature of this
pottery set allows others to make their own personal notions about what the piece would be used
for.
As for Greenbergs article there are many effects that could be borrowed from my pottery
pieces and used in another medium from the lines made with the rim to the drip pattern in the
glaze. However, it would just be using the same ideas and not doing the exact pattern and or
angles causing a duplicate. The amazing thing with making pottery is that you can have the
same type of clay, working with the same wheel and when attempting to copy a piece you
imagine, you may end up with a poor replica of the idea but practice makes perfect.
Within Greenbergs Theory of Modern Painting (Greenberg) there was quite a bit of his
writing that allowed me to feel connected to his words. However, with my medium not being
drawing, painting, nor anything of that nature I tended to have a harder time identifying with a
lot of what was being referred to.
My piece I will be bringing to class.

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First Essay Greenbergs Theory of Modern Painting

Katie Sowards - ARTH260
9/30/2015 Edited 12/8/2015

Works Cited
Greenberg, Clement. "Modernist Painting." (n.d.).

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