Ceramics First Day of Class - Spring Semester 2009

Well, another semester of school is here and I am taking Ceramics 242 this semester. I have Siggy again for an instructor and she is a blast. She is a six foot tall, English person, who says what she thinks. She is a very hard task master and won’t take shit from anyone, but she pushes you into creative thinking for your project. This will be a tough but interesting semester.

In today’s class all Siggy had us do was introduce ourselves to the class, go over the syllabus, did a tour of the studio and had us make a stamp. This stamp will be used as our signature for our pieces. It was kind of fun to make the stamp. I created two different stamps; the first one has my first name in Japanese and the second stamp has my sergeant rank. Now if all the projects were going to be that easy.

We also found out what other materials we need to buy and bring to class and we found out that we have to bring an additional $30 to pay for clay. I just found out that the $100 we pay in studio fees, the majority of that goes to upkeep of computers. Hello, there are no computers in the ceramics studios. I want my money back!

Our homework assignment was to bring in the materials we need for Wednesday, buy the book at Boiler Copier and read the first section and bring in the money for the clay.

I have already read the first chapter and I am already thinking of my final project. I found out what our final project options are:

1. The first choice is to do some research on historical objects and do an abstraction of one of the pieces we did research on
2. The second choice is to take a song, poem, or story we like and draw a picture of what we think that prose is about and than create and abstraction of that drawing to create our ceramics piece

Both options sound like fun, don’t they. Now isn’t that sarcasm?

I am thinking of doing something with option number two. I have already thought of several ideas: one is from the rock band Nickleback with their new song “Gotta Be Somebody”. When I here their song, I visualize two people trying to each out to each other. I think I can draw a picture of that and than make the image into an abstract concept. (You realize I said I think I can right!); the second thing I was thinking of was Walt Whitman’s poem “Calvary Crossing the Ford”, when I read that poem I could hear the metal clank, feet stamping, could see the guidon’s flowing in the wind, and soldier’s sitting on their horses. This is the first poem that I actually could visually see what was going on. I don’t know if it was because I was in the Army or what, but I was so proud of myself. What I am thinking of doing for my idea is a soldier slouched on a horse. I can actually visualize the piece. I am going to have to wait and see what Siggy says, but I can’t believe I actually have two different ideas, SWEET!!

Right now I am not panicking because the first day was so easy. Siggy said that this class will kick your butt. She also says that the class is not an easy class and that we all had to keep that in mind, especially when it came time to learn how to throw.

One bad thing about the class is that the classroom will be closed during the weekends, so I am going to have to stay after work and work in the studio for a few hours. That is really not something I am looking forward to doing. I have been on campus since 6:00am and I don’t want to stay longer, but I am just going to have to suck it up and move on. UGH!