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I am committed to providing
each student with an understanding of the craft of creating in clay, while
maintaining a positive caring outlook to encourage each student’s
creativity. I will always find them doing something RIGHT!
My studio is one that
nourishes children and adults to “paint outside the lines. ”While teaching
them technique. I maintain a positive, joyful, energizing atmosphere of
exploration where both children and adults can play and have fun.
Students with special challenges will forget them in the studio, finding
new happiness in realizing they can get away from their problems, issues,
or illness by working in clay. Sharing my love of working in clay with
others seems contagious.
Our school system is defined
by rules and boundaries. In my studio, creativity is limitless. My
greatest hope is to encourage them to take their clay projects beyond
those boundaries. “Their visions,” I tell them,” can be a reality.” While
learning about glazes and glazing techniques, they will also learn basic
design and color. They will draw on the tables. They will draw on their
notebooks. They will draw in the clay. And their spirits will soar with
each class!
My love for exercise and
yoga, have influenced my propensities to watch students for good body
alignment and peaceful centering, in the physical act of creating in clay.
I may adjust their positioning at the wheel, or the way that they lift
their clay, with their “pottery muscles” as I call them here! The calming
aspect of working at the potter’s wheel, and building by hand, will leave
them with a sense of peace and accomplishment. Often my adult students
will comment that clay is their “therapy for the week.”
What a valuable resource I
have with my studio being only 20 miles from the awesome Washington DC
Galleries! We will each study the history of the pottery of different
cultures. I encourage field trips to the Renwick, our only National Craft
Museum, the Sacker Museum with its Asian pottery, the Indian museum, The
Smithsonian, the Hirshhorn Sculpture Museum, and The National Gallery of
Art. There is so much awesome art, pottery, and sculpture to savor in our
great city. Archeological pottery chards from George Washington’s Mount
Vernon home are practically right down the street. How can we NOT be
deeply affected by this history, this pottery of long ago eras?
My students will be enriched
with their new pottery and ceramic history adventures. They will grow from
the process. Whether it is drawing what they see, sculpting or creating on
the wheel, mixing under glaze paints to find the color they are hoping
for, or learning about the history and techniques of pottery, students
tell me that the experience affects them for the rest of their lives. The
knowledge will make them appreciate the process and they will now
understand it and choose to buy handcrafted pottery in the future. They
will learn the appreciation of earth and fire. They will understand how
natural materials can create next century’s archaeological finds! They
will feel the joy in the acts of creation. And they will attain a new
confidence in their work and themselves.
In creating sculpture, my
students will make animals, with an understanding of how important they
are to our lives and our fragile environments. Many will create new
animals such as fish with feathers, birds with antlers. I encourage all
students to recycle, whatever material they are working with, whether it
be clay or handmade paper, or twigs found in the yard. Learning the value
of our natural environment can only bring all of us its riches.
It is my hope that my love
for working in clay will inspire others and they too will catch the magic
of this creative process. Their finished pieces will always remind them of
this very special experience and the wonders and joys they felt when
working in clay. Knowing that the positive energy that they feel is its
own reward, then I, too, feel successful as their teacher.
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