Monkey see, monkey do!
I’m doing a
hands on workshop at the Visual Arts Center of Clarington in Bowmanville,
Ontario.
I have had
debates with other teachers about my style of teaching. I teach monkey see,
monkey do. I show you and you do it. It is learning the technique of putting
pieces together and how I do it. People are often surprised that you can put
wet on leather hard. The plan is to get
over being intimidated with scale. We left the studio last night and the tables
were full of good sized bowls, jugs and casseroles.
This morning will be trimming and handling and then large two piece platters.
They are worried the technician is going to freak out because of the size of
their pots.
My very
first teaching job when I was in my early 20’s I had a wonderful Principal
named Paul Cole. Paul was all about the students and having the school always
busy with student activities. Paul said never let the caretakers run the school
because if they had their way nothing would happen. They would prefer that the
students leave at 4, not use the gym or the classrooms so that they could
quietly and peacefully go about keeping the school neat and orderly. Apologies
to the technician but ya gotta break an egg to make an omelette.
So they
will have used a lot of clay by the end of the weekend and they will clean up.
Yes, the shelves and tables will be full of pots to be moved, carefully fired
and the kiln will be filled to capacity several times over.
At the end
of the day I tell the students that have tried to imitate my pots to come back
to the studio and innovate. Take the technique and come up with your own forms.
With all the workshops I have done I don’t think I have ever seen a student’s
pot that could be confused with mine. I can see influences in some of the best students pots and that makes me proud.
Comments