Zest Jones
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Dr. Zest, aka Anthony Dallmann-Jones, PhD, began his art career in college. I began as a potter. Like most major things in (my) life, "it all began as an accident." My girl friend was in art education and I was chasing her one day, right into the ceramics studio. I was smitten...as I saw people using the wheel to make pots, I could not stay away from the clay. I took every ceramics course in college I could, It was years later before I moved, first, into watercolors.
"I went through the same cycle in painting that I did in ceramics: First, attention to each detail. The piece had to be 'right' or 'real' otherwise it was no good - a major disappointment. Then I had a startling revelation thanks to a fellow student, Rex Fogt, who today is still a great ceramicist. Rex said, "Jones, if you want perfect detail, buy a pot at K-Mart...each one there is exact and exactly alike. Clay is about earth. Pots should be 'earthy.' Get your mind out of your work...earthy is where it is at."
It took a while to learn how to do that. How to 'stop worrying' and just 'DO' the art. Getting rid of the mind, as we all know, is not easy - but PURE ART is mindless.
