Passing through my thoughts lately has been the misguided statement that ‘children are very resilient’. I’m sure this refers to them simply carrying on with life because it’s all they know how to do. Everything is new to a child and many things must be a shock the first time of experiencing them. Making the time to piece past responses together, from a place of safety and from a point far back in time where things were clear, with a notion of finding the right current path is why I went to art college. Clay is my medium because of my earliest experience of its slippery and dissolving tactile resonance.
I hear often that schools around the country are getting rid of their kilns and pottery rooms (? for reasons of H&S or space) and that art colleges are closing ceramics departments.
For me there can be no substitute for engaging truly with a material to the point of understanding it’s science, it’s artistic potential and applications. Finding out what it intrinsically ‘wants’ to do. Using the hands, tools given by nature, to create something from nothing; learning through experiencing a wide ranging spectrum of media, perhaps making a thing of beauty that started off as mud, or just plain ‘getting your hands dirty’ has life enriching benefits important for personal development.
