I'm afraid I'm very old-fashioned and lean to the view that above all, ceramic pieces should always be functional. But I also believe that there's nothing to stop me from making it the nicest that I possibly can. Which, as a student potter, means that about 90% of what I make at this stage, no matter how nice it might look, is what I call "a learning piece" that is, a piece done to acquire or practise a particular skill or technique. 
The worst thing about me is I'm a perfectionist. Looking at my pieces, my eye sees all the faults and imperfections. I wouldn't sell my 'learning pieces' if I could, but I'm happy to give my pots away to friends if they like them. of course, as time goes by, I will get better and better and hot end up depending on happy incidents with the firing to produce really nice stuff with a definite look that says it was made by me, even if you didn't see the signature.
My Japanese teachers say that we should be proud of our works and put them up for sale at the Pottery festival. Much to my shock, I actually sold five or six pieces over the last two years (like this one) and got orders for ten large or twenty small ones. That's a sort of mixed blessing because I won't put anything in the shops unless I'm happy with it - and it's got that 'definitive look' about it.
If I had to say what the best thing might be about my pottery, however, it would have to be that as I learn new techniques and improve old ones, I also try to incorporate other artistic skills I've picked up into each piece I do nowadays. In this test piece, for example, I've used Chinese-style one-stroke painting to paint white chrysanthemums on a green-glazed bowl and though it isn't quite as nice as I'd hoped it would be, I must say that it actually turned out better than I thought so I'm going to work on stuff like this for the next few months.
There you have it, my personal thoughts as a potter and, in all modesty, a bit of an artist - a potty painter, you might say.
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