Artist Statement

It's pretty safe to say that I have a ton of clothes. So many that I cannot fit them all into the closet that is in my room. Now to my defense, my room was designed to be a bonus room; therefore, the closet in my room was not designed to hold my entire wardrobe - specifically not anything that might hang longer than 3 feet (such as every dress that I own). How does this tie into an Artist Statement? Well, you see, the closet where the majority of my dresses and coats hang is in a spare bedroom in my house - a bedroom that is often referred to as "Mike's room" simply because it is the third upstairs bedroom and the one that has the furniture that came out of Mike's room in our old house. Mike never once slept in this particular room, but the other two rooms of the upstairs are my room and Rod's room. Rod and I have both spent time living in this particular house, so we have a pretty large claim on our rooms. Mike never once lived here. Never even spent the night here (at least not to my knowledge). Regardless, most of his "stuff" from high school and several of the mementos that we kept after his death are in "Mike's Room." One such thing is his name plate and artist statement from his Senior Art Show...back in 2003 when he was a senior at good ole' Greenbrier High. I happened to be in "Mike's Room" getting something out of my other closet when it caught my eye - his nameplate made up of scrap pieces of pottery hot-glued to two wooden boards with his artist statement attached to the left side. Despite Mike's "artistic" lack of grammar and punctuation (which drives me somewhat crazy), I love his artist statement. My brother was a creative genius. He had such a brilliant and creative mind. I wish so much that I had appreciated his creativity more during his life. Here is his artist statement, with punctuation and correct grammar included.

In the world, there are three kinds of people: those who just coast along living from day to day for no other reason than that is what they have always done. These people make up most of the population. Then, there are the kind of people who at least attempt to make changes in the world. These are your doctors, lawyers, and politicians. They live their lives to try to make a difference for what they believe is the best way. Then, there is a third group of people: those who create. These are the people who really shape your world. They are the ones that put all of the eccentricities and quirks that add all the interesting and fun spins to our world. They funk up the world for the better - adding life, color, and a little bit of originality. I have found a place to shape a little bit of earth myself in the actual shaping of earth. Pulling clay out of the earth and then forming it to my own will is the most natural form of creating that I can think of and makes for good use as functional art. Art that can be used for day to day purposes seems to be an even greater use of creativity. I have found clay to satisfy my creative needs and helps me to form my world with a little fun and a bag of funk.

From the wild world of Mike Wallace.

The functional clay pieces he referred to are a variety of plates, pots, bowls, vases and pitchers that can be seen all around our house. Given the late hour of this post, I don't have any pictures, but I'll try to remember to post some later on.

Mikey, I definitely miss your creativity - even if it drove me a little nuts back in high school.