Hello all, I'm back from the dead! Camp has started since last I posted and it's keeping me very busy. I work at the Village Center for the Arts five days a week from 8am-4:30pm. This week's theme is pottery wheel and sculpture and we have 17 kids enrolled! That's three more than the maximum we have for pottery wheel weeks and it's hectic. I even teach private pottery wheel lessons after camp some days and today was one of those days as well. So my schedule for today was 7:30-4:30pm clay camp, 4:30-7:00pm private pottery wheel lesson, and when I got home I worked on my own private ceramic projects in a studio I set up in my basement. SO MUCH CLAY.
Working at the VCA is difficult and trying at times but rewarding in the end. I teach children between the ages of 7-14 various media depending on the theme of the week. There's a huge range of talent between the children in any given week and I have to be on my toes at all times. I have a lot more appreciation for teachers, especially teachers for young children, than I did before I taught. I enjoy it but at the same time I would really like to work with students who are older and who are most interested in art and conception. I am so passionate about art that it is disheartening to watch children completely lose interest, destroy, laze about, and lack ambition when it comes to their project. However, sometimes I do get a challenge and that is when I am most excited about working with a child. I am there to teach them and when I get a chance to really make a powerful suggestion to make their project successful, it is entirely worth it. As much as I love children, I could never make a career teaching them.
News Update: If you haven't read into it by now, I have set up a small ceramics studio in my basement. After taking over a corner, I finally organized most of my supplies and worked with my dad designing a plaster wedging board and a few storage shelves and table. I have an electric wheel set up and now I'm producing work. After a long day at work it's hard to jump right into the pottery wheel but I'm working in some time here and there. With only a little over a month left of working time for the summer, I have a lot to accomplish on my quota. I'll be posting some photos of my studio and the work I create throughout the summer.
Until next time!
