Vol. XVII, No. 10. 
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK 
February 1916 
E herewith print a letter just received 
and ask those of our readers who 
are inspired by it, either for or against, 
to write us an answer. We will 
give to the best letter a prize of 
six months subscription to Keramic 
Studio. The interesting part of this 
letter is that the writer is not a be- 
ginner, and has evidently studied 
conscienciously in school and studios. 
However she remains unable to see any beauty in conven- 
tional work: 
"A recent copy of the Studio fell into my bands lately, and I am so pleased 
with the Naturalistic Supplement idea that I herewith hand you my subs- 
scription for one year, beginning, if you please, with the December number. 
I am glad you are giving some space to the naturalistic. It is only fair to 
the many to whom the conventional does not, and never will appeal. 
"Have you ever looked at an Aubrey Beardsley drawing and felt an 
absolute repulsion creeping over you? You know the 'spotting' is exactly 
right, that rythm, and balance, and everything that goes to make up a per- 
fect design is there, and yet- you hate it — that is the way conventional has 
always affected me. When a child at school, design was taught in the draw- 
ing course all through the grades; and while I received good marks, and was 
always among those selected to decorate the blackboards, it went against 
the grain to do it-. When I reached high school and was allowed to draw 
from casts and objects, and, later in life, when I painted in a life class and 
worked hard but joyfully over construction, values, and color, I understood 
then the rebellion that filled me in my younger days. The love of nature 
and of natural forms and color is so strong in some that the distorted, un- 
natural conventional shapes are as disturbing and irritating as a cubist por- 
trait of a dearly loved face would be. 
"For anything that comes as close to the eye as table china, it does not 
seem to me wrong to use naturalistic decorations, any more than it is wrong 
to paint figures or flowers on a fan — not gaudy bunches of flowers, sprawling 
all over the dish, but small groups and bands of rather flatly painted posies, 
but with their own beautiful lines and in their own beautiful colorings. I 
would like to see what Mrs. Paist (a china painter who can actually draw) 
would do along this line. 
"Thanking you for your kind (though perhaps wearied) attention, and 
insisting again that I am glad you did it. 
"Sincerely yours, V. P. S." 
We have asked our readers for helpful criticism in order 
that we may make Keramic Studio more valuable to its read- 
ers. So far, we have had but one suggestion, to the effect 
that some of the designs we publish are very poor. This we 
must admit to be true but unfortunately it is a fact difficult 
to change for several reasons. There are in every issue one 
or more poor designs — surely — but good ones too. Every 
designer with every degree of artistic taste in design gets her four 
dollars worth many times over in a year even if she can use only 
a small proportion of the designs published. A good teacher 
gets one dollar each in a class of ten or over — at least that much 
for an hour's private lesson. Who can say that twelve issues 
of Keramic Studio are not worth to them at least twelve such 
lessons? For her own artistic self respect, the editor would 
prefer to publish only the really good designs, but she has to 
keep in mind the saying of one of our best teachers of design 
"you must keep in touch with the beginners, if they get some- 
thing they really understand or are able to grasp and like, at 
the same time showing better things, you may be able to take 
them by the hand and lead them higher, step by step. But 
if you go too far over their heads, if it is all Greek to them, 
they will shut their hearts and minds to you and turn away." 
A friend suggests that the editor should go over those poor 
designs, herself, before publishing, and correct the worst faults. 
Apart from the value of the editor's time when taken from 
her legitimate work, time only too limited to do the work she 
has to do, she knows nothing practically in the first place 
about naturalistic designing and, in the second place, there 
would be a great outcry from the originators, if anyone tam- 
pered with their designs. It is as if any one should twist the 
nose of your baby or alter the position of its limbs. And the 
curious thing is that the designs which the editor considers 
the poorest, very often prove the most popular, so it is by these 
stepping stones that we mount the ladder of art. 
Plato held that in art as in everything else there is "from 
all eternity, an absolute pattern laid up in the heavens." 
We are all of us channels, more or less obstructed, through 
which flows the mind and soul of the inf nite. The test of 
the unobstructed passage of an eternal thought is in its im- 
mediate acceptance by all, though thoroughly appreciated 
only by the few. By this test, we can gauge our success in 
art. If it is a true rendering of that pattern eternal in the 
heavens, the great mass of people must feel that it is beautiful 
even though they do not understand why. The reason why 
so many fail to appreciate the truths expressed by abstract 
or decorative design, is that the demonstrator has failed to get 
the absolute pattern. The truths expressed by naturalistic 
design are drawn from the seen instead of from the unseen — 
from the natural image instead of from the eternal mind. It 
is easier for a child in art to appreciate the naturalistic for 
this reason, as all children must grasp first the concrete, 
afterward the abstract. So Keramic Studio must continue 
to publish all sorts and conditions of designs— must be "all 
things to all men" — cater to all tastes — and must ask its read- 
ers and good friends always to think of "the others" when they 
find designs that do not appeal to them or in which they can 
see glaring faults. If they will look with open minds they 
will find even in the poorest design a bit of that absolute pat- 
tern—for the editor does not publish designs that have no merit 
whatever. 
* * * 
We have received from Reusche & Co. a specimen mounted 
moth in a neat pasteboard and glass case. These are put up 
with the idea of suggesting beautiful color combinations for 
those who wish something new or different. It is a good idea 
and a valuable one for those who can afford several specimens. 
if n> 
EXHIBITION NOTES 
There was in Denver an interesting exhibition of decorated 
china in the week beginning December 6. The Gas Co. of 
Denver which are selling a china kiln made in Denver, had 
turned over the whole of their first floor display room to china 
decorators and advertised the exhibition without charge or 
expense to them. Hundreds of dollars worth of china were 
sold and the event greatly increased the interest in and de- 
mand for decorated china. 
There was a large and attractive table of Coover Out- 
lines and it was evident from this exhibition that the interest 
in conventional decoration is developing considerably through- 
out the West. 
