I am working twelve hour days at present. I am still rubbing down all the porcelain castings and now after a week of rubbing I am here.
All the big stuff up the far end of the dining table has disappeared. The horses have been in the kiln for two firings, currently I hate them.
This disgust with perpetrated art I believe to be perfectly normal. In all the years I interviewed artists the only ones who were happy with what they were doing were adapters. Miniaturists, for example, buying in wooden dressers and filling them with made and bought-in items, or people dressing dolls made from commercial moulds. Some of the people utilising the art of others are really themselves at the top end of the game, such as needlepointers and embroiderers reproducing textiles of the past, or furniture makers making famous pieces of furniture in miniature. I think the confidence there comes from the agreement having already been reached by consensus, that what they are aiming for is art.
If it is completely your own, made out of an idea in your own head, deciding whether or not it is art, is, in itself a work of art, when opinions are still divided on much of the art of the twentieth century, for example. Andy Warhol’s soup cans – art or rubbish? His images of Marylin Monroe, rubbish or art? Did you answer each question differently and, if so, why? Surely the subject matter cannot elevate the art when both are from popular culture? Then, of course, when we get to miniatures, you can choose to miniaturise anything at all. Is a miniature cathedral, perfect in every detail, better art than a miniature dustbin, perfect in every detail, just because it is a cathedral?
I think art cannot be seen immediately after it has been produced. I think, like mould, it has to hang around for a bit until it grows on you. I remember as a child being taken to see the newly finished Coventry Cathedral, which shocked as many art critics as it delighted. Now, having moulded over nicely, the balance of opinion is that it is high art.
So, I might be making high art. I might be making Hi, art! Tricky to say. What I certainly am making is a mess.
Here’s an arty question. What is this?
Time is up, fortunately gravity is down, which is why this is a bin containing the dust from all the rubbings and some castings that broke. I rub on to a stack of paper, standing on sheets of plastic, whilst clad in an apron, a mask, a hair band, and sitting on a chair cover, while the chair is standing on sheets of plastic, and the end result is this. And also, of course, the smooth and smoothly fitting pieces of proto porcelain. They then go on to the circular kiln shelves, and, when enough are full, into the kiln.
The next lot of shelves will have two firings too, containing, as they do, hands and feet. The first firing will reduce the pieces to bisque, when they are cool I will glaze all the fingernails and fire again.
And that will be next week taken care of.
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There are still some tickets left, head over to www.miniatura.co.uk for details.