Vol. XVIII, No. J. 
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK 
May 1916 
E have no "Beginners' Corner" in this 
issue, not from lack of material, but 
on account of lack of space. Our 
competition has brought us a number 
of contributions, and we have just 
given four first prizes, five second - 
prizes and six third prizes. These 
will be published in the coming issues. 
H H 
We have had so many interesting 
letters in answer to V. P. S. besides the two answers published 
last month, that we have been unable to decide upon the best, 
so we are going to leave it to our readers to decide. We will 
give these letters as rapidly as possible, and with them an- 
nounce a date for votes from our readers, and will announce 
the prizes in the following issue. 
The letter from V. P. S. "in the February Keramic opens up a subject 
which I believe is of more than usual interest to all decorators. Perhaps no 
two artists will see the subject in the same light. Truth is very much like a 
diamond, each facet cut in similar geometric shape, yet the arrangement of 
I Ik 1 facets and their individual color brings a distinct and cherished beauty, 
so the owner of a beautiful gem may certainly be pardoned for considering it 
the finest. The owner and perhaps the cutter of the gem alone know and 
appreciate the full beauty. Art to me is synonymous with beauty, and the 
more beauty we see the better artists we are, nor do we expect all to see and do 
the same work. Natural tendencies and environment preclude such a pos- 
sibility. 
Dow defines "art" as "appreciation combined with power to express". 
To me to work without appreciation is slavery, and to appreciate and not 
express is selfishness in the extreme, and to be an artist is to apppreciate and 
express one's best self, which results in a combination of emotions that no one 
but a true artist can experience. I say combination, for art is at one and the 
same time the most fascinating and the happiest, as well as the most unsatis- 
fying, of all endeavors. The vista enlarges so rapidly, the obstacles are so 
great, the seeming appreciation of others, on which finances rest, is so slow. 
The great artists, like the great musicians, must also have divine determi- 
nution. 
With these thoughts in mind does it really matter if china is painted 
conventional or naturalistic. The real problem is to make it a thing of real 
beauty. To do conventional the designer must often go to nature for inspira- 
tion, and a naturalistic painter will certainly benefit by studying the elemen- 
tary principles of space filling, balance, proportion, symmetry, repetition, con- 
tinuity, and if we are to make ceramic decoration a real art we must do more 
than argue naturalistic vs. conventional. 
Art is beauty, not dogma, and we need both realism and idealism to 
appreciate and express the beauty of nature and to understand and express 
the symbolism of design and color symphony; not mysticism, no, but just 
a plain appreciation of the beautiful and the reasons why. Then we will see 
more in nature and take greater care to reproduce what we see in its wonderful 
beauty and in the infinite realm of abstract design we will see new beauties 
that will firing decorative appreciation to a higher and a more popular plane. 
The decorator who paints only naturalistic loses much of practical as 
well as broader vision and inspiration. Conventional work will even help to 
an appreciation of the beauties of nature and will give a definite training that 
is much needed to raise the student of naturalistic work. Conventional work- 
ers may well modify their work to include naturalistic ideas and forms, and 
inspiration. 
The Japanese live their art in every day life, which is what, we should 
learn to do in America. V. G. COOVER. 
Ten Or twelve years ago (lie letter written by "V. P. S." would have been 
"my sentiments too". 1 was a subscriber io Kcrninic Studio when i( first 
began to show the conventional designs. I could see nothing beautiful, let. 
alone anything the least bit artistic in them, and when the magazine became 
more and more conventional, I was first heart-sick about it, then finally just 
got good and "sore." 
At that time one of Lcykauf's most promising pupils, also a teacher, 
accepted my invitation to come West, live with me without expense to her, 
in exchange for my lessons, she to make what she could from teaching and 
selling to others. Naturally, I absorbed her ideas of art while learning her 
way of painting; yet here and there in my work would creep in some little 
"conventional" or, more likely, "semi-conventional" style of work, and she 
used to say to me, "I believe you would do good conventional work." At the 
same time we both cultivated a "sneering" attitude towards the conventional 
work as shown in Kt ramie. Studio. All we could know or sec of it was limited 
to what was illustrated in the Studio. Finally, when my year's subscription 
expired, I wrote the editor of Keramic Studio a letter that I, in my ignorance, 
thought would have great weight, in the controversy going on for and against 
the conventional designs. The editor, no doubt, will remember one partic- 
ularly brilliant (?) passage where I said, "I am like the old woman that said 
(in regard to something or other, I don't know what now) T wouldn't if I 
could and I couldn't if I would,' " referring to the using of the conventional 
designs in the Studio. She answered me, as I deserved, that "Keramic Studio 
had existed before I became a subscriber and no doubt could exist without my 
subscription." 
To sum the matter up, I am again a. subscriber, have moved to a larger 
city, have traveled considerably since that time, am painting most of the year 
round and do conventional work almost exclusively. To be fair to myself 
though and to Nature whom I love in all her moods, I must honestly say I think 
the naturalistic is the I rue art. I think the conventional or the semi-conven- 
tional is more appropriate and in much better taste for table use; but when one 
wants a truly artist i ■.. piece of work that is to be purely ornamental, then we 
must copy natuf j with her infinite numbers of colors, lights and shadows, 
though I would not give the impression that a finely executed piece of con- 
ventional work on vase, jardiniere or box cannot be just as ornamental, but 
that the naturalistic style of work should be confined to pieces intended only 
as an ornament. 
One tiling the naturalistic artist cannot understand is why the artists who 
do both conventional and naturalistic work, and both equally well, almost 
without, exception prefer to do the conventional work, notwithstanding the 
fact that the naturalistic is much to be preferred from a financial standpoint. 
Most any artist can do three naturalistic plates while she would do one in 
conventional that looked to have the same amount of work; but in most com- 
munities she cannot get any higher price for a conventional piece than she 
would for a realistic, even though it would take her three or four times as long 
to do the conventional. 
I wonder if "V. P. S." visited the Panama Pacific Exposition. It seems 
to me that any one, no matter how prejudiced they were against the conven- 
tional style of work, would have become converted after seeing the wonderfully 
beautiful and equally artistic display of conventional work there. I may also 
add for the benefit of those who were not fortunate enough to visit the Expo- 
sition that the naturalistic work was conspicuous by its absence. F. L. H. 
In answer to the letter of V. P. S., it seems as if it almost savors of "all the 
world is queer save thee and me, and thee is just a little queer," for even the 
bouquet that is thrown at Mrs. Paist is uncertain. But setting aside the non- 
compliment to the rest of the world of china painters, let us look at art without 
design — how far could we go? Let us look at design without a love for nature 
— how can they be separated? From where but nature do we get the beautiful 
forms and colors? If we saw only "distortion" in conventional work, what 
would we do for decoration and architecture. Would even our rugs, our tiles, 
our wall dec-orations, be half as lovely if those that designed them were not, 
lovers of nature? Nature itself is grand, but it loses its grandest reality when 
painted, that which holds us goes. The odor, the life, the grandeur of nature, 
can never be reproduced on anything, it must lose. But the beautiful forms, 
the color, the suggestions are man's to form, to mould, to blend with his own 
natural taste and make ornament and design. So how could one study and 
love art and not love forms and curves with all the beauties they give, when even 
the human form is symmetrical. One might like posies on china, better than 
conventional work, I hat is a matter of taste. But I cannot see how design in 
<dl its forma can be "disturbing" and "irritating" to a true artist. One's taste 
can develop and grow in whatever channel one allows to be opened up, or be 
stunted in one that is closed; and very often one is greatly surprised at the un- 
covering of a long petted like or dislike. SADIE E. ALLAN. 
■:.>. 
MAY ) 
