Guest Blogger Carter Gillies on Food and Morality

This guest post by ceramic artist and blogger Carter Gillies is in response to my recent post Way Outback: Bush Tucker. To read more of Carter's thoughtful writings follow his blog at http://cartergilliespottery.wordpress.com

Yeah, the subject of food and morality is not always straight forward. I think a lot of what you say has merit. This passage touched on several important points:

"After living overseas in countries that struggle with hunger and food distribution I have come to understand that the ability to make a "moral" choice to abstain from a food source only comes when there is an overwhelming abundance of food in that society. Hungry people don't have the luxury of abstaining from a food source that might make up more than 50% of their natural diet. I am not knocking vegetarians but I am saying that deeply held beliefs are often dictated more by our physical and cultural landscapes then the intrinsic morality of the issue."

Morality and what counts as food are always culturally dictated. Many themes overlap across cultures. Food sources, food preparation, food distribution, food practices are all part of a system, and growing up within that system the choices make sense. The same with traditional morality, for the most part.

So its possible that circumstance has a great influence on these things, and even though we can talk of 'food' in general, and 'morality' in general, they are not really general things. They are embodied realities. Sounds like I'm a relativist here. But sometimes the world throws up unfamiliar and uncertain circumstances, and the old trusted ways no longer apply. What do we do then, when the rules are broken?

You say that "hungry people don't have the luxury of abstaining from a food source" and that moral choice seems to come "when there is an overwhelming abundance of food in that society". Survivors of a plane crash end up eating the passengers who died, poor people here in the US forage in dumpsters and take whatever hand outs they can get. Privation does seem to shrug off the normal sensibilities.....

But as a vegetarian myself, I'd like to flip the focus of the scenario you have laid out and suggest that Morality and food ARE intimately linked, and that in a culture of abundance (as in the US) there is a real moral issue that some folks are going hungry at all. Poverty is a stain on our society, and we are not living up to our moral responsibilities by sweeping the issue under the carpet. Also, the food industry itself is engaged in practices that have moral components. The idea of sustainability is entirely moral. I'd also suggest that where there is such abundance of nutritional options, exploiting industries based on taking lives needs to be examined. Its no longer necessary to kill for our supper, and yet we only get meat on the table when something has died. The death was not necessary in the same way it might have been 100 or even 50 years ago. Is it a moral question that lives are taken when they could have been spared? Do we even need to ask this question when human lives are at stake? If our culture fails to extend basic morality to its animals is that not an indictment of our own morality? Cultures that NEED to hunt for food almost always have the respect for its food source that links into a system of morality. Are the traditions of meat eating in our first world culture vestiges of a hunting society that had no other choice? Are we simply ignoring the moral questions that were embedded in the small scale society practices now that we've turned food gathering into a large scale commercial venture? Do we accept death as the price of appeasing our taste buds?

The difficulty is that in the modern world there are consequences to our actions that are far reaching and hugely impactful. Tradition and morality sometimes need a wake up call to get on the same page as society is traveling. The pace of cultural change far outstrips what we are able to make sense of as a society. Our morality often lags behind and has to play catch up. We don't have the luxury these days of the slow accretion and evolution of traditional responses. Atom bombs, pollution, and other modern manifestations have made things more urgent.
So I'm not appealing to 'inherent' morality. I'm not appealing to traditional morality. I'm just suggesting that the game has changed so much that we need to think differently. We need to start thinking more in moral terms how our actions square with the world today, and what that will get us for the future. A diet of meat was a luxury throughout most of human evolution. Putting meat on a family's table didn't always impact those outside the home itself. In a global world the resources spent raising a pound of beef are so hugely disproportionate to the amount of vegetable protein that could have been grown, not to mention the ills of the meat industry itself, how is meat eating not a profligate waste of resources? With so much hunger throughout the world?

Morality always explains the difference between 'is' and 'ought'. Simply because the way we do things currently includes meat eating doesn't mean it reflects what ought to be the case. The status quo can be used to rationalize every evil society has invented (slavery, segregation, gender inequity.....) The reasons that once justified aiming our resources at putting meat on the table are long gone in the US (for the most part). We have to think differently now. We have to think of scarcity and responsibility. We have to think of long term consequences.

Morality may not matter if we don't have a choice. If we DO have a choice, then it is often a moral one which direction we take. I might be a cannibal up on that Andes mountaintop, but in downtown Athens Ga that won't cut it. Maybe we will end up in some future world where we eat 'Soilent Green'..... If we blow it now, we may not have a choice. Our children's children's children may be forced to subsist on processed human body parts...... Can we say that looking ahead and with the possibility of side stepping that future that its NOT a moral issue facing us here and now?

Carter is having a sale in the Athens, GA area this weekend. If you are in the area stop by and support him. 

572 Nantahala ave, Athens Ga
Saturday and Sunday, June 1st and 2nd, 10am – 4pm

David Hiltner on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast

This week on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with ceramic artist David Hiltner. His functional pottery and sculpture references the farming landscapes of the midwestern United States. He says of his work "I am interested in rural landscapes, silos, rolling hills, and furrowed fields. The patterns, textures, and colors translated into the vessel are memories, moments, and thoughts frozen by fire. These vessels are created to celebrate the land that inspires and sustains me."

In the interview we talk about his recent exploration of corn as a symbol for commodization, his love of the great outdoors, and his experience founding the Red Lodge Clay Center. In 2005 he left his position as an Associate Professor at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas to create a full service clay center in Red Lodge Montana. The clay center has grown to include an artist-in-residence program, gallery, and community clay classes. For more information please visit www.redlodgeclaycenter.com

To subscribe to the Red Clay Rambler podcast on iTunes please click here. To add the podcast to your Stitcher Radio on Demand Playlist click here. You can also stream the latest episode on the podcast tab for this site. 

Way Outback: Bush Tucker

Last month I had the great pleasure of spending a day driving out in the bush with a few of my Anangu friends. We drove an hour north of Ernabella to the border of the Northern Territories where we detoured onto one of many dirt roads that hug the fence lines of massive cattle farms. This remote part of the central desert has been used for cattle grazing since the introduction of a hearty Buffle grass in the late 1800's. Lucky for us this region is also a prime location for digging honey ants.

Tjala, or honey ants, are one of Australia's tastiest forms of Bush Tucker (bush food). The ants live underneath Mulga trees where they harvest pollen to create a delicious nectar similar to honey. Within their elaborate underground colonies select ants are over fed by the colonies' worker ants. This gorging helps stimulate the production of honey which is stored in a large bulbous growth on their back. The honey ants in turn regurgitate the honey as a source of nourishment for the colony. This process is a great example of a species evolving an ingenious way of creating food from the landscape in which they live.

Honey Ant digging is a long slow process involving the careful probing of successive layers of dirt. The digger starts by loosening the surrounding soil with a long metal pole. Shovels are then used to remove the dirt. The ants are fragile so the digger has to be careful not to squish the ants as they dig. Over the course of a few hours the digger literally sinks into the ground. I helped a few times with the shovel but honey ant digging is largely considered a female task. Men hunt, women dig honey ants. Division of labor based on gender is very common in Anangu culture.

You can see from the pictures below that we collected dozens of ants. It was hard not to eat them all as they emerged bright and glistening from the brick red soil. By the end of the day we had eaten our fill and still had many handfulls left to share with family members back in Ernabella.

Click here to watch a clip showing Warlpiri women digging ants and talking about the possibility of the central desert being used for radio active waste disposal. 

Like many outback trips ours turned into a hunting trip as soon as someone spotted a Kangaroo on the horizon. After many failed attempts with our old 22 rifle, including a near miss with an emu, we had a fresh lunch. From the fatal shot to the first bite less than three hours passed. Most of this time was spent field dressing the animal and cooking it under coals in the traditional way. It is both remarkable and impressive to see how efficient the cooking process is. I asked my friend how he knew how long to cook the Kangaroo. He smiled and said "We cook it until its ready." This open pit style of cooking is one of many traditions that are passed down from generation to generation in Anangu culture.

For the sake of sensitive readers I'm not going to include pictures from the hunt but I can say that the hunting experiences I have had with Anangu have left me wondering why hunting is seen in an agressive light in many developed countries. The process of tracking, killing, and cooking an animal that is more than abundant in the surrounding landscape is both natural and respectful. In contrast the American factory farm system seems unnaturally cruel in respect to the treatment of the animals during their short lives. I don't mean to underplay death. Death is equally harsh in all instances. I do however think that an animal's quality of life is a good reflection on how much the animal is valued by the humans that consume it for food. Anangu have been hunting Kangaroo for thousands of years, over which time they have developed a symbiotic relationship with both the animal and the land around them. There are many dream time stories that speak to the importance of the animal for physical and spiritual nourishment.

Our day ended with a sunset drive back to Ernabella. We stopped along the way to take pictures of the full moon that was creeping above the horizon. I am deeply grateful to my friends for taking me out with them. Any time spent with Anangu in the bush is a gift.

I recently had an interesting conversation with my brother, who does not eat meat, about hunting for food. After we discussed the many angles of the issue he surprised me by saying, "I think I would eat meat if I could fish or hunt it for myself." This seems like a very sensible middle ground for an often hot button topic. The stark reality of life in the desert dictates that people eat the food that nature provides them. I imagine a discussion of the morality of eating meat is not common within Anangu culture. Meat is food. Vegetables are food. Everyone is happy when there is food around. Hunger blurs these sort of distinctions for people in need.

After living overseas in countries that struggle with hunger and food distribution I have come to understand that the ability to make a "moral" choice to abstain from a food source only comes when there is an overwhelming abundance of food in that society. Hungry people don't have the luxury of abstaining from a food source that might make up more than 50% of their natural diet. I am not knocking vegetarians but I am saying that deeply held beliefs are often dictated more by our physical and cultural landscapes then the intrinsic morality of the issue.

Check out earlier posts in the series about Ernabella.
2012
Way Outback: The Road to Ernabella
Way Outback: Night Writing
Way Outback: Chasing the Light
Way Outback: A Story for the Eyes
Way Outback: Animal Kingdom
Way Outback: Paint, Money, and Land
Way Outback: The Red Walls of Uluru

2013
Way Outback: Teaching in the Great Red Center

Highlights from Plates and Platters at the Clay Studio

Kevin Snipes

Courtney Murphy

Eric Pardue

Kari Smith

Kathy King

Kurt Anderson

Meredith Host

Sue Tirrell

The Clay Studio in Philadelphia is hosting Plates and Platters from May 3 through June 2, 2013 in their Reed Smith Gallery. They do a fantastic job of photographing the work and presenting it online. It makes it easy to admire the work from afar. I have posted a few of my favorites above but please see the whole show by visiting www.theclaystudio.org.

It is a good exercise to pick favorites from a set and then find the common thread that unifies them. Over the years my enjoyment of new work has not changed but the aesthetics of the pieces I enjoy has changed drastically. In the last five years I have been engrossed in pattern and color whereas I previously liked simpler pieces with all-over surface treatments. Does my love of work that is visually more busy reflect my increasingly more saturated mind... or maybe I'm just drawn to what I am think I am not as strong at in my own studio practice (i.e suface over form.)

There is a definite correlation between the evolution of my own studio work and what I am actively looking at. About a year after I start enjoying a certain style of work I find I start drifting in that direction. I'm not sure why a year is the magic duration but this seems to be the nature cycle of me assimilating an influence before I can actively use it in studio. Based on that equation the work I will be making a year from now should be brightly colored graphic work with geometric organization. Lets see how it turns out.

I'm happy to have work in this show. I sent this large platter which features a mix of finger swipes through slip and underglaze sgraffito drawings.

Julia Galloway on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast

This week on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with ceramic artist Julia Galloway. Her functional porcelain pottery spans a wide range of subject matter and decorative motifs from architecture to cloud forms. She says of her work "A need for beautiful domestic objects and an instinctual drive to create things are tremendous dance partners for idea and desire." In the interview we talk about the role ceramic history plays in her life as an educator, her work ethic, and the way her visual language changed after moving to Montana. She currently serves as a professor and director of the School of Art at the University of Montana. For more information on her work please visit www.juliagalloway.com.




Galloway often presents her functional work within an installation context challenging the viewer to make connections between singular objects and larger ideas. Her 2009 exhibition Quiescent featured hundreds of cups decorated with drawings inspired by John James Audubon's "Birds of North America". She says of Audubon, "Late in his life, (he) realized that he was not going to live long enough to paint all of the birds of North America, so he began to draw with both hands. I relate to his passion for making and am touched by the detailed simplicity of his work." The exhibition featured a unique form of visual and auditory display. As people picked up the cups an audio recording of the bird on their cup would play creating a symphony of natural sound in the gallery. Her attention to detail within the individual pieces and the overall display of the work set a high standard for exhibiting functional pottery.

To subscribe to the Red Clay Rambler podcast on iTunes please click here. You can also stream the latest episode on the podcast tab for the site. Click here to listen.

Way Outback: Teaching in the Great Red Center

Turkey Bore near Ernabella

Date farm area

Mt. Connor in the distance

Flying into Yulara you can see Uluru (aka Ayer's Rock) on the left below the horizon.



I've been down in Australia for the last month working in Ernabella, Pukatja community. I've intentionally held off from blogging to let my mind settle. This trip has been about reflecting on the bigger picture whereas my first trip was all about absorbing the details. Last year I found myself swept up in the newness of the environment. Every sunrise, inma song and sgraffito pattern led me back to the question "Where am I?" Coming back to friends and an area that I now see as familiar has shifted this question to "Why am I here?"

There is the obvious answer. I'm here working on a community service grant from the state of South Australia to encourage Anangu men to work with ceramics as a vocation. This is much needed with extremely high unemployment and no industry to speak of in the middle of the central desert. There is also a more nuanced answer. I am here to help a struggling community with a strong cultural identity express that identity through objects that also function commodities. The positive thing about this arrangement is that there is a strong market for paintings and ceramics that express Anangu identity. The not so positive part of the situation is that Anangu don't seem to think about time or financial need. Selling is not the main motivation for them to make art. This is generally a good perspective but selling can be a positive motivation to get a piece finished within a time frame that fits the ceramic process. Without an attachment to the final product one day projects turn into three day projects that don't get finished. 

Much like last year I came down with grand visions about what could be achieved in the community. It is good to think big when you are in the planning stages of a project but its been a big reality check to see the lack of interest on the community's part. Its not that there aren't people in the studio working its just that they are the same men that I became friends with last year. I hoped we would expand our circle to include men that are my age or younger. I thought men would be jumping at the chance to increase their financial stability and therefore their status in the community. The reality is that most Anangu men want to hunt Kangaroo. Making ceramics is a hobby. 

I'm not sitting in judgement writing this post as a complaint. I'm sitting here as a teacher trying to figure out how to motivate students who don't think learning what I am teaching is as important as I do. Isn't this the great dilemma of teaching? I don't have any immediate solutions but after a month I feel like I have my head screwed on straight about what my challenges are. I'm in the middle of readjusting my expectations to meet the student's needs as opposed to what I want them to need. I have one month left so I'll keep you posted on how this goes. For the time being I'm focusing all my attention onto the guys that are already in the studio. I'm hoping word will spread and other guys will migrate into the studio. 

I'm also enjoying the hell out of the world class mountain biking that we have discovered in the area. Its been a huge thrill to ride thousands of feet of unexplored rock. You can see from the color of the earth in these pictures why they call this the Great Red Center. 

Check out earlier posts in this series from last year's trip to Ernabella.
Way Outback: The Road to Ernabella
Way Outback: Night Writing
Way Outback: Chasing the Light
Way Outback: A Story for the Eyes
Way Outback: Animal Kingdom
Way Outback: Paint, Money, and Land
Way Outback: The Red Walls of Uluru

Help support the new MJ Wood Memorial Short-Term Residency Fund at Red Lodge Clay Center

The "MJ Wood Memorial Short-Term Residency Fund" will support ceramic artists who wish to develop a body of work with a socially-conscious spirit, a sense of community engagement, and with the intent to DO GOOD with their creativity and skill. The residency will be housed in the studio of Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, MT where residents artists will have the opportunity to work in a first-class facility for one month. Their project will also receive international attention through the Red Lodge Clay Center website.

Here are a few social practice projects and articles that underscore the spirit of the MJ Wood Residency. They help define the currently trending term "social practice" and show the power art can have to create positive change in the community.

Bowls Around Town
Outside the Citadel
The work of Sharon Kallis
Puppets N People
Craftivism

Michael Hutton and Jill Foote-Hutton have committed to an annual contribution of $450 to underwrite a one month short-term residency at Red Lodge Clay Center, but would like to see this opportunity take root and grow into an endowment. To achieve this goal they have created an account to accept donations at any level, in memory of Jill's maternal grandmother, Marguerite Joyce Wood, who set forth the intention of DOING GOOD in all her children. Joy was always engaged in learning or executing a new craft, for several years she ran a small ceramic shop in Missouri, and she always had space at her table for an extra friend.

The MJ Wood fund has an Indiegogo campaign with lots of interesting rewards for donating to the cause. Click here to check out their campaign on Indiegogo or if you would like to send a donation, at any level, send a check or money order to:

Altana Federal Credit Union
ATTN: MJ Wood Memorial Short-Term Residency Fund
PO Box 1188
Red Lodge, MT 59068

The Best of Season One of the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast

Chandra Debuse (USA)

Christin Johansson (SE)

To celebrate the one year anniversary of the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I am featuring a compilation of excerpts from season one of the podcast. While all of season one's episodes are unique and enlightening in their own way, these clips raise topics that I haven't been able to shake out of my head. The episode features excerpts from interviews with Matt Long, Chandra Debuse, Christin Johansson, Nina Hole, Willow Neilson and Jason Burnett. I am eternally grateful to all the artists who took part in Season one of the podcast.

Jason Burnett (USA)

Matt Long (USA)

Willow Neilson (AU)

Nina Hole (DE)

To subscribe to the Red Clay Rambler podcast on iTunes please click here. You can also stream the latest episode on the podcast tab for the site. Click here to listen.