Read more stuff about me here...or don't. It's cool.
This blog will be a rolling collection, in no certain order, of the ceramic pieces I've been making since 2013. To the best of my ability, I will try and date things (at least for myself so I can remember the chronology later on). In the Blog section I will leave the verbal ramblings that need a space to be, and in the Portfolio section I will post strictly work. Also, here are some pictures from my Dropbox.
The nitty gritty of it is that I LOVE making pottery. As a kid, I was always enrolled in art classes, in late high school just taking "clay" at a minimum every year. When I was figuring out what to do for college, I pretty much demanded to go to an art school and when my parents said "Heck, no. We're not paying for that," all I could think was "You guys just don't understand."
No, I didn't understand. School is expensive, and art doesn't necessarily pay the bills. So, I picked a more sensible school, told my parents that I had enrolled as a Business/Undeclared major and then went ahead and declared English/Humanities instead which conveniently had a Fine Arts element to it and continued to take whatever art classes I wanted for the next four years. I knew I'd never be an artist, but at least I could exercise my creativity.
I graduated in 2012 and moved back to my home town to teach yoga and work at the most wonderful gourmet food store I've ever known. My job was Self-Proclaimed Quality Assurance/ Quality Control Head Honcho which meant show up early every day, taste test all (eat a lot) of the cookies, cakes, breads, brownies, anything in the sample fridge, and the daily lunches and dinners. I was good at my job and superbly dedicated. As it turns out, these aren't details you can reasonably put down on a resume, but in April, 2013 I managed to get a job offer for a more "sensible" job in the oil and gas industry. Adult paycheck, benefits, regular hours.
Man, I sure turned into a boring person. No more art, no more brownies, no more making my own schedule. By summer of 2013 I had the mini epiphany that even if I'm busy being a cookie cutter adult, that doesn't mean that I can't shake things up. I sat around pining for the old college art classes when it occurred to me that there's no one telling me that I can't sign up for college art classes. I got online and sure enough, there were night classes for pottery, so I signed myself right up. Fall of 2013, I took Ceramics I. Spring of '14 Ceramics II. Then III. Then IV, and now I am finishing up my second semester of Special Projects. I've been perfectly content just making whatever the heck I want for three years, but now I have a basement full of undocumented endeavors.
No, I didn't understand. School is expensive, and art doesn't necessarily pay the bills. So, I picked a more sensible school, told my parents that I had enrolled as a Business/Undeclared major and then went ahead and declared English/Humanities instead which conveniently had a Fine Arts element to it and continued to take whatever art classes I wanted for the next four years. I knew I'd never be an artist, but at least I could exercise my creativity.
I graduated in 2012 and moved back to my home town to teach yoga and work at the most wonderful gourmet food store I've ever known. My job was Self-Proclaimed Quality Assurance/ Quality Control Head Honcho which meant show up early every day, taste test all (eat a lot) of the cookies, cakes, breads, brownies, anything in the sample fridge, and the daily lunches and dinners. I was good at my job and superbly dedicated. As it turns out, these aren't details you can reasonably put down on a resume, but in April, 2013 I managed to get a job offer for a more "sensible" job in the oil and gas industry. Adult paycheck, benefits, regular hours.
Man, I sure turned into a boring person. No more art, no more brownies, no more making my own schedule. By summer of 2013 I had the mini epiphany that even if I'm busy being a cookie cutter adult, that doesn't mean that I can't shake things up. I sat around pining for the old college art classes when it occurred to me that there's no one telling me that I can't sign up for college art classes. I got online and sure enough, there were night classes for pottery, so I signed myself right up. Fall of 2013, I took Ceramics I. Spring of '14 Ceramics II. Then III. Then IV, and now I am finishing up my second semester of Special Projects. I've been perfectly content just making whatever the heck I want for three years, but now I have a basement full of undocumented endeavors.
Emily, Riley, Me. Yep, Halloween.
To sort of get to the point, my wonderful friend Emily Collett got laid off here recently. I talk about the woes of 2016 in my first blog post, but I think it's safe to say that 2016 has gone a few rounds with her as well. In the midst of what was an incredibly trying time, Emily jumped back to her creative roots and dove head first into her blog and her art. I have felt so inspired by her that I brought myself to start putting words down in like fashion. In fact, I highly recommend you go check her out because you won't leave the same after you soak up what she has to say. She is the Day Dreamin' Engineer, and I tell you what, her Layoff Brownies are to die for (and could easily double as Heartbreak Brownies in a pinch).