NAKED WOMEN & POTTERY! One of Val's Rambling Art Stories.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Bonjour!

Look at this Massai Warrior piece of pottery I made, and then I will tell you my story:

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

In my penultimate year at Grammar (High) School, when I was 16, I took an optional (A level) course in Art.

There were 4 reasons why I did so:

i) I was hopeless at Art ( 'You still are, Val'. Thanks... for nothing').

ii) I could smoke in the Pottery Room. ('Me smoking, Sir? Of course not. It's just some paper we're burning in the kiln')

iii) I could look at pictures of naked women. ('Me looking at pictures of naked women, Sir? Of course not. I'm studying the female form for my Art class).

I got thrown out of the Art class after one year.

In that time I made one piece of pottery -- an ash-tray, I thought that would be useful -- and spent a lot of time studying the female form.

From 1963 to 2013 -- half a century, folks! -- I never made another piece of pottery.

Until Monday 6 May, 2013, when I was invited to sit in at a friend's pottery class in Copenhagen. She asked if I wanted to make something. I initially declined, but then changed my mind as it gave me something to do with my hands.

And so I made my Massai Warrior.

Here is a photo of it being made in the pottery studio:

'What has this got to do with Naked Women, Val?'

Well, if you look behind my Massai Warrior, you'll see a Naked Woman: A-S was modelling for the pottery class..

'Why didn't you make an A-S piece of pottery, Val?'

Well, I did tell you that, in 1963, I was hopless at Art, and things haven't really changed now that we've moved on 50 years, and it's easier for me to make Massai Warriors than Naked Women.

THE END.

'That wasn't very interesting, Val'

I know: but you did get to the end of the story.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Reason no iv) (in 1963) was that all other subjects on offer involved hard work, and i wasn't a hard worker. Indeed, I could not see any reason why spending 2 years learning Latin, Applied Physics, Further Mathematics or anything like that would  advance my chosen career prospects.

SiM; Beginagin Finnagin

[Suus in Mokum]

Excuse me for reading and being interested in your story! I made it to the end and beginning twice, alsjeblieft.
See you at Jenze ;)

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Don't pick on our dear Suus in Mokum, Val...she...and many of us...

wanna know:

Now what is reason #4??

(There are also 4 little blue envelopes waiting to find out)

Hi Suus, thanks for the BLUE xxx

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Now listen here, Suus in Mokkum --  I'm telling y'all a story, and y'all have to work out if its fact or fiction, or something inbetween. Like me, it doesn't have to be logical and:or make sense...BUT buy me a beer or three at jenze in a couple of week's time, and I'll try and be clearer about this.,

[Suus in Mokum]

Aha... why studying female forms to make a male warrior? (ps: what is reason four now, hihi)

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Suus: it's a he, not a she. (Although that in itself does not explain the absence of boobs). There's a typo in the original -- which I'll try and correct to make iv) into iii): no-one else has noticed this so far.

MomKat: wow, that's an amazing coincidence. Do you think i can claim Honorary Greek Artistic Citizenship? (I suppose the Government would sell it to me -- along with some islands, government buildings, etc)

[Suus in Mokum]

Haha, great story! You are a sculp talent as well! But you might need some more studying of the female form as your massai warrior has no boobies... What was reason three?

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

'Tis almost Cycladic Greek, my dear Valentine :-)

( and you are an artist, and a story-teller,

and even a BLOGGER! YAY!)