Clay Mentality
Welcome
Hi, thanks for visiting my ceramics website. I have a lot of plans for this website, I want it to grow and develop as skills as a potter do. This page will serve as a brief biography of my life as a ceramist, but will also include things that effect other parts of my life. The purpose of this website is to share my ceramic work with everyone who has been so supportive of my work and bold artistic endevours. Without my friends and family giving their thoughts and well wishes for my hobby, it would not have developed as far as it has. I get a lot of personal satisfaction out of my creations on the wheel, but nothing is as rewarding as the compliment of a friend, or relative. This website is a modest attempt at sharing my creations with everyone.
My Philosophy
I am a young potter in a rural area of North Carolina. My artistic philosophy is one of cooperation and teamwork to achieve better individual expression. There are only 5 possible figures in wheel ceramics (cylinder, bowl, cone, sphere and bottle), so there isn't a lot of room for "new" in the art. All ceramic works are modifications on these themes, or combinations of them. Artists can gain inspiration from each other, and offer a lot of input to each other. Through this shared effort, artists can find new ways to express themselves as they create their own translation of what they see in other artists' work.
The Begining
When I was about 5 years old my grandmother caught me playing with some "Play Dough", and she took it away from me. She said that it was bad because it would stain her table, and when I was done with it, all I could do is put it back in the can, or it would turn into dust. At the time I thought she was just worried about her table and being "typically adult". The next day she brought me this bag of stuff that looked like "Play Dough", except it was white. She and I started working with it a little and I loved it, I made things that looked really nice. A few months passed and it was time for Christmas, my grandmother gave me a small toy pottery wheel. My grandmother and I spent a lot of time working on the wheel, as well as doing handbuilding. In 1994 my grandmother died and I lost interest in ceramics for a while.
Rebirth
In late 2004 I decided to resume my explorations into ceramics. I ordered 50 lbs of clay, half terracotta and half white stoneware. I practiced handbuilding at first, including things like pinch-pots, coils and "sculpted vessles". At the end of 2004 I got my new wheel, the Creative Artista. Getting back to throwing on the wheel I found myself being quite clumbsy and not quite as graceful as I had remembered. After a few hours of practice I was finally back to the level of ability I remembered. Going back to this hobby wasn't easy, but once I got my hands into the wet clay I became so comfortable and relaxed. It took many weeks to see any level of improvement in my skills. In the middle of 2005 I got my first kiln. Before this time, I never had any of my pieces vitrified, because of this, a lot of my work from when I was younger did not survive. Once I had the ability to fire my work, it opened the door for using glazes. I approached glazes very timidly, even though I was more outgoing with paints on my earlier work. I am gradually moving forward with using glazes to enhance my work, becoming less affraid each time I glaze.
Now
At the end of the Fall 2005 semester I decided to persue ceramics academicly, enrolling in a begining ceramics wheel course at the Univerisity of North Carolina at Charlotte for the Spring 2006 semester. I plan to continue in the wheel ceramics program for as long as I can. I am considering a studio art minor. At the current time I am under the instruction of Mrs. Joan Tweedy.
Future
The future is a very uncertain thing, but I plan to continue working with ceramics as a hobby and I also have some academic interests in it. This website serves as a vehicle for me to share my interest with others and to keep a record of my ceramic explorations.