What I am about
Stephen Driver
This is a site to view my work primarily along with a few of Louise’s weaving and tapestries. I also want it to be a small window into my more unconventional ideas and influences. I am a potter who loves to make functional pots that grow out of traditional influences and processes. But there is so much more to making good pots than that I think good pots are as profound as any other form of human expression. Most of you would probably be surprised that my work has been deeply influence by the artist Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp was so much more than a repurposed urinal and he is one the most important thinkers about art of the twentieth century. I am particularly enamored with his concept of “the serious joke”. My use of the “serious joke is most obvious in the creation of domain names that might look like real enterprises and in more capable, more entrepreneurial hands might even be successful businesses. Domain names like Little Stevie’s Raccoon Removal or Ozark Wabi are born out of actual experiences and I am very serious about them, but they are also a joke, A serious joke, much like Duchamp’s “50cc of Paris Air” or many of his other Readymades. My collection of domain names are part of my fantasy corporate empire. I actually make my own jam. I do help my neighbors by removing raccoons from their gardens. I would really like have a Parallel University as a place of higher learning. I do want create my own ceramic esthetic with Ozark Wabi. Mdeep admiration for George Ohr is reflected in my Mad Potter of the Ozarks. All serious jokes.
I like to think that the making of functional pots as a subversive activity. What I make is Art but most people would consider what I do as Craft or Decorative Art and with that, a kind of diminished status. Subversive in that my intent is to design and make objects for daily use that communicate and convey, something much more than just utilitarian function. Art in plain sight or what I like to call “the secret life of objects”.
About Louise
Louise Halsey has been weaving since 1971 though with an ever-changing focus. Her first works were shawls, scarves, table runners and rugs. She has made rugs of wool as well as ones from fabric strips that were hand dyed for a custom order business. Now she weaves tapestries on her four-harness floor loom with images of houses, abstract geometrics and clouds. While in graduate school she expanded her passion to go beyond the loom and include becoming a performance artist with a humorous bent.