When I was a teen my art teachers and guidance counselors recommended I didn’t go to art school. Those schools were for people who make real art, like painting, sculpture, fiber arts, etc. I wanted to be a comics artist, which they told me was commercial art (and it was probably my own lack of self-esteem, but I always received their tone as condescending).
For years I wore the commercial art label with a sort of transgressive or subversive pride. I was always ready to correct people if they told me I was a good artist. I’m a capable illustrator or cartoonist, but I don’t make art, I would tell them. If making art that everyone could enjoy is commercial, then I would lean into that. What I didn’t realize is that I was also swallowing an assumption that other arts were off limits to me. My wife Anne almost had to drag me to a watercolor class. That, too, was something I had internally decided was the purview of real artists, not commercial artists like me.
Funny how those early experiences and unexamined assumptions can affect the rest of your life! It turned out I loved working in watercolor, and it wound up informing the look of The Two-Faced Statue.
A lot changed in me internally after moving to Columbus. When I’ve had more time to reflect on it all I’ll share some of it here. But the gist is that I started to relax my grip on the identity as a cartoonist (or commercial artist). It started to become something provisional, not definitional. And with that relaxation came a growing comfort with allowing the word artist in my vocabulary.
So now I’m having a ball exploring ceramics. Playfully making objects as if I visited the world of Doctor Baer and brought something back home with me.
My first batch were these talismans:
I started with some 3D printed stamps based on the mystical alphabet I developed ages ago:
I stamped them into the clay, then put some more marks on the objects using an underglaze. I can’t wait to see how these turn out after firing.
I’ve also started making mugs from taverns and cafes, starting with the location Boulder and Fleet visited in A Friendly Game:
Here’s the menu I designed for her Cafe, wherein you can find the logo on the mug:
And more test talismans:
Right now I have no expectations as to what these objects will become. Products for a store? Things to display on my table during signings/events? Gifts to give to my relatives? They might be simply objects for me to enjoy. It’s not important to me right now. What is important is that, for the first time in a long time, I’m letting myself play with art again. No expectation or purpose, like I did when I was a kid. And it’s been a lovely experience.