31 August 2008

Ugly ART

| ARTistic-U
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JB 1977

Hello all.

I’m looking for the artist that made THIS horrendous excuse for a cup.

It is inscribed with “JB 1977” and has a saucer to go with it.

Did you make it? It was found at Aussie Junk about a year ago.

Anyone know who made it? I need to know as I am doing some research and developing a site – more to come if I get an answer to this question.

Many, many thanks!

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oops, I mean granny, not gladys. That’s my 88 year old brain at work.

gladys, good to hear you were laughing at the “gladys” plates. It’s kinda cute hey. I’ll be adding loads of modern art pieces in the coming weeks as I advertise at the cit, etc

Not a professional web designer by any means. I wouldn’t know how to write html if my life depended on it, but WYSIWYG is another story. Freewebs makes it easy, and the rest is just knowing when to stop, keep the colours crisp and clean, utilise a white background with no fancy crap, and write good content. Optimising it is another deal altogether. Thanks for your input and nice comments though.

I was laughing with your site not at it, but the same can’t be said for poor old great aunt Ethel and second cousin Gladys twice removed and their lovingly painted china plates. I felt terrible, but they did look funny all put together like that.

The site itself is one of the classiest and best-designed I have ever seen. Are you a web designer?

granny, 😉 I hope you were laughing at the cup and not my site … I spent days on that thing. Tell me you were laughing at the cup, please!

ARTistic-U said :

My website explains it – see http://www.freewebs.com/artistic-u

It is quite funny actually. I felt mean about laughing, but I couldn’t help it.

Aurelius said :

It’s a horrendous excuse for a cup, but you bought it?

Has it been cleaned since 77? Doesn’t look like it.

Haha, it’s even worse in real life. Ugly is an understatement. I buy homemade art. You know the “art” you created in grade 7 or at a pottery class? My website explains it – see http://www.freewebs.com/artistic-u

Ewwww, that’s gross! My imagination is filling in all the chunky bits.

tylersmayhem1:51 pm 01 Sep 08

I actually made something like that on the weekend. It was about 7:30am on Saturday after my morning coffee, then also on Sunday. Actually, my lunch doesn’t seem to be agreeing with me today, so I might go and make another at around 2pm.

You could write a good novel around this cup.

It’s a horrendous excuse for a cup, but you bought it?

Has it been cleaned since 77? Doesn’t look like it.

I’m in Canberra Potters. We’ve been around since ’75 – so someone who has passed through the doors may be responsible. That said – I doubt anyone will remember.

Now; I’m no expert, but that looks like cheapie student general purpose clay. It looks wheel-thrown by someone who was just learning. The base hasn’t been cleaned up, so either this was one of the first pieces that someone threw, or they just weren’t trying very hard. Maybe a kiddie? A school piece that a teacher marked the bottom of?

Glaze doesn’t give any clues either – pretty standard stuff that you’d get out of an electric kiln (the type they have in school art classrooms across the country).

Any other CPS folk lurking here care to correct/add anything? I’m pretty inexperienced, so they probably can.

contact the canberra pottery club, used to be in watson, last i recall. they may know who did it.

hehe, no Ant, it grew on me too. It’s my favourite piece now.

Granny said :

It is a brilliant site.

Thanks Granny – it’s amazing what you can do with freewebs and it only took about a week or two to create.

Thanks for everyone’s humourous responses 🙂 – nice start to the day !

Did someone say Ming? Could it be? 😉 But judging from the state of this piece, it’d be more like, uuhm, Ding?

Am I the only one who likes the mug?

I love his work and know it well. However, I think you may be discounting the Baroque influence.

Ming Dynasty – Johamitsu Bushidotsui – quite a famous potter in that 1677 era of potters

It is a brilliant site.

That writing scratched on the bottom is definitely not a sheltered workshop person. It’s just a person. Later on, most potters used a stamp.

Ari said :

I’d suggest a sheltered workshop retard as the prime suspect.

It’s easy to take your abilities for granted when your body works properly. It might pay you to remember that you are one unexpected stroke or traffic accident away from being a ‘sheltered workshop retard’ yourself.

the letters look like my grandma’s writting – definatly not childlike to me either.

There used to be a good potter’s shop upstairs in Garema, next to the toy shop (which probably isn’t there any more, but used to be). It was run by the potters’ association or whatever it was, and sold all their various works. Looks like something from there.

Ant, lol, isn’t it awful. I just have to find the creator of this masterpiece. I’ve started a website that features home-made art – this piece gave me inspiration to create a website for homemade art which I’m well on the way to starting – see http://www.freewebs.com/artistic-u

How the ‘ell did this piece of endearing junk end up surviving for 31 years when there’s so many modern, Maxwell Williams type designs, being dropped in the kitchen every day?

This little treasure deserves the attention it now gets, if not from others, then from me.

Thank you all.

In fact, this works
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l449/ARTistic-U/00005%20JB/27072008254.jpg
And it’s quite artful! Crummy and rubbishy, but artful.

Artistic, do the “direct link” thingy in Photobucket. Image code doesn’t work here.

The cursive “J” would suggest it was made by someone far older than Riot-Act’s JB.

I’d suggest a sheltered workshop retard as the prime suspect.

And, okay yes, it should have been a pic of the main part of the mug – here it is – can mods please add this to top of this thread also please?

[IMG]http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l449/ARTistic-U/00005%20JB/27072008254.jpg[/IMG]

And the bottom’s all flat, obviously cut off a wheel with a wire or something. Probly made by a proper potter an all. Just not a very tasteful one. Show us a picture of the important bit of the mug!

Sands said :

how old were you in ’77 JB? I made some crap when I took pottery class as a kid. I’d be stoked if it made the market though!

Me?

Not old enough to be making pottery.

As far as maker’s marks go it looks reasonably adult to my eye.

grunge_hippy8:35 pm 31 Aug 08

looks like something a kid would make… the letters are certainly child-like. it could have been from anywhere! good luck looking for the needle in the haystack!!!

how old were you in ’77 JB? I made some crap when I took pottery class as a kid. I’d be stoked if it made the market though!

The cup itself is a rainbow of browns in a swirly pattern – a little blagh. Sorry, I only posted the base pic in this thread. Anyone know who JB is? Please?

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