Larissa Wild

Sculptural Vases

ceramic

Today I wanted to begin by talking about a topic that has been sometimes central to my art world journey, and sometimes peripheral, but always present. That is the line in the sand between “art” and “craft”.

Having gone to art school, with an interest in painting and drawing, I was drawn into the ceramic realm. Something about the earthiness and practicality and ancient connection to humanity called to me. Whilst those of us in the ceramics department took all the core subjects at art school, such as life drawing, general drawing, art history, I felt like the ceramics department were kind of “out in orbit” on their own planet. I would seek permission to use facilities that were exclusive to other departments: photography, printmaking and had an equal interest in all these along with painting which kind of took a back seat in my art school journey, ironically, as it was the thing I thought I most wanted to do.

Upon leaving art school, I set out to make a go of creating functional ceramics, though finding my skill set lacking in any business sense kind of way, was stopped in my tracks at my first big rejection.

Moving along several decades, I found myself always drawn to ceramics and painting. I dabbled at the local college studio making some random pieces that I swept under the rug as “just” playing, and too simplistic to consider taking seriously. I dabbled as well in painting and drawing, though never fully gave myself permission to be an artist.

Now during this time I was the director of a gallery, and then went on to have my own art consulting and appraisal business, though never allowed myself to show my work or take it seriously.

I realized I had this deep seated fear (not uncommon for artists..) but this one had a key problem at the root. The dichotomy of having done a degree in ceramics, but wanting to practice in multiple mediums, and feeling like I had to identify more seriously as a painter, that ceramics was the craft version of being an artist. Lesser than.

I desperately wanted to ignore categories, and pretend I didn’t care about the stigma of functional ceramics in the art world. I wasn’t self assured enough to take this notion into action. I continued quietly, and very inconsistently, to practice ceramics and occasionally painting and drawing.

As someone who likes to deep dive on research into a topic of interest, I realized there may be other people who have explored this topic. I came upon the brilliant YouTube channel of Dr. Ellie Anderson, Overthink Podcast, who in her video on “Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art Introduction” speaks about how during the 16th century in Italy, the visual arts: painting sculpture and architecture were separated from crafts very clearly for the first time. She speaks of how during this period Georgio Vasari wrote the book “arti del disegno” which became the basis for “beaux arts/fine arts” in France. She goes on to talk about how scientific revolution occurs here, which brings the separation of science from other methods of inquiry. She shares how in the 18th century Charles Batteux in his book “Les Beaux Arts” divided mechanical arts from fine arts, which had a lot of influence up to the present day. Then comes Immanuel Kant, who distinguishes fine art from craft, arguing that fine art is a product of genius and expresses aesthetic ideas, while craft is determined by function and is “mercenary”. BOOM. There it was. The divide I felt so torn by and a “moral” reason uncovered that I didn’t sign up for, but through culture had absorbed.

I poked around on this topic for some time, and honestly still do, though in the meantime realized that it was an endless rabbit hole, all fabricated by people over time, mostly men, and I wasn’t getting any closer to creating the art I wanted to be making. Or allowing myself to appreciate so many crafts on the same level art “fine art” because someone in history decided the separation was important.

So I just started taking the ceramics seriously. Now when I say seriously, the main ingredient I wanted to add into every object was play. I became focused on the fun, which I had shied away from in the past because I thought I had to take everything more seriously and prove my intellect through visual format.

This moment in time marks a new approach for me, of following my intuition through play, injecting fun into everything I make, and having courage to share these objects, as fun and play might just be the things I was put here on this earth to share:)

Will I keep diving into this topic of categorization of arts versus crafts? Certainly. It fascinates me. As a deep thinker I can’t help myself. Though going forwards, I will be playing freely with all things creative without feeling I have to fall into a category (at least making a concerted effort not to!).

Larissa Wild

The Geometry Of Us IV

mixed media on panel

Larissa Wild

Creatures

ceramic