Thursday, March 07, 2013

Future and present


At the end of february, I had the great pleasure of welcoming the future in my very present. 
I always semi-jokingly say that I aim my pottery at the kids as future clients, but the truth is I think they're the future artists, transmitters, teachers and that clay as a material and a way of expression is a vital experience in every human being's life time. To experience it as a child will transform your  perception of the world and daily life and it will stay with you your entire life.
I had three young teenagers visit my studio for a hand building and throwing experience. I was welcoming strangers in my very own personal workspace for the first time. I usually teach outside my studio because my space is quite restraint. What a pleasure to slow down the pace and share with them the love of clay discovery. They took it all in; looking at ceramics pieces from around the world, wedging the clay, hand building a simple jar, then an animal, dealing with the speed of the wheel and the reaction of the clay and their hands on it, deciding on a mental shape and transferring it into reality.
Then , really want to do it again.
It was a very rich morning for the four of us. I really enjoyed sharing all of it and then watching them experience it for the first time. Something in their brain changed that day and because of it they might be able to understand other things on a different level. "It's truly magic", they said.