When you visit C2C Gallery, it can be a visual overload. Each of our ceramic artists have spent decades, hours upon hours, learning techniques and what tools work well for them. They have created thousands of vessels/forms to reach a point of competency. Then, the really hard work begins – finding their own voice.
I am not there….yet. I continue to look, make, and think. My friend and mentor, Robin Hopper, has been writing lately about how he found his voice. You can follow his thoughts on Facebook. This past week he was talking about historical references to architecture and animals. It made me think about all of the pictures that I take while traveling. These images are almost always focused on form and surface decoration.
Tyler Loftis and Chris Protas have been teaching pop-up drawing classes in Grand Haven. They, too, teach about really seeing and drawing what is seen. Our inner critic tells us how we think something should look.
“To learn a craft well is difficult enough, but the real difficulties start when you know your craft and want to express in your own way an idea that you visualize in your mind. First of all, you have to make many pots, thousands, till your hands respond to the smallest, most subtle, most intricate or diversified feeling. Personal expression will come when you can really translate your innermost vision into the rough and so elusive material: clay.” -Marguerite Wildenhain
