Clay / Body
In the early 2000’s, I was studying painting at Hunter College. After one semester of clay I switched my concentration to ceramics. After graduating, I assumed I was a lifer at the wheel. I was much more able and agile at this point, and fell in love with the process. Initially I was motivated by the desire to ‘best’ the clay. To make it do my bidding, to refuse to let it move me, for I controlled it. Over time that mindset proved so naive. In order to really get it, you have to learn to listen to the clay. It will tell you what it needs and what you do with that info is the art and skill of the thing.
In 2016, after nearly 15 years of wheel work, my spine condition was sent into rapid decline by a failed surgery, and I thought I’d have to stop altogether. But I couldn’t. So I got to hand-building on a very small scale.
It felt forced, at first, to make the switch from the wheel, but in the change there was learning, and the process of hand building enriched and expanded my thinking when it comes to form, function, and practice. I switched the focus from the limitation to a mode that made room for a deeper understanding of the material. It also allowed for an almost entirely home-based practice, which is crucial to any productivity for me, since car travel is strenuous and I need to lie down often.
I have had to learn to listen to my body’s signals, much like I had to learn to listen to clay. I have had to plan around pain, and to (occasonally) accept the slower pace of things, often setting timers so I don’t get so absorbed in the clay I forget to take lie-down breaks.
