Paul Mathieu: A close minded "potter"

         Paul Mathieu spoke at the NCECA critical in Santa Fe, which my professor, Linda Sikora went to; and brought back Paul Mathieu's talk, The Radical Autonomy of Ceramics. (which can be downloaded from this link;  http://nceca.net/static/documents/radical%20autonomy%20FINAL%20short.doc ) I made the mistake of reading this article just before going to bed and found my self needing to blog about it at 3 in the morning because I found it so upsetting.
        How can a four page article rile me up from my tired eyes, and force me on to my poor under-used blog?  Well besides the fact that this "close minded potter" has decided to redundantly express his frumpy, backwards, and all to specific thoughts of the grandeur of "ceramics" as an entirely separate form of art; he hit home on an ideal of "art" the frustrates me to no end.  The idea that "ceramics" is "ceramics," that painting is painting, and sculpture is sculpture, and photography is photography, etc... When this idea of "art" is something so far from (what I see) as the truth. 
        In the article I find he is trying too hard to demote "ceramics" and at the same time put it on a pedestal as if it is some grand form of "art" that no other "art" can touch because it takes such a base of knowledge to be able to create it. When the truth is that "ceramics" is just as difficult as any other art form and even though you need a certain skill set to understand the material, it remains true for any other product of "art".  I think the ideals that he is spreading, this super specific and almost racist way of thinking is far too close minded for what "art" has turned into.  Why should "art" methods and forms become separate from one an other? Why can't potters/ceramicists be sculptures? Why can't painters pot? Why can't printers perform? Why can't performers sculpt? What is to say that these things can't happen? Why can't "art" become just Art.  Something that encompasses all types of work; whether they be separate or combined materials? I feel that this ideal is at the heart of what Art is! We may not be able to define precisely what Art is in a physically present way; because it is always changing and forming itself in to new things, so that no one can precisely pin point what it is.  That is the magic of Art, which is something that I am so drawn to. 
      It is unfortunate that Paul Mathieu is so (seemingly) set into this tyranny against Art. Perhaps his voice is meant to rile up these kinds of thoughts, just maybe he doesn't actually think that every form of art should be separate and unyielding to one an other; I can only hope.  Especially when there are artists out there like Maira Kalman, Phillipe Pasqua, Anslem Keifer, Paul McCarthy, Frank Gehrey and many more from the past, the present and more preciously the future.