vessels

When I was 14 years old I started taking ceramics at Cypress College. I took all 24 ceramics classes they offered at the time - and then got hired as lab technician and got paid to be there. I loved it, and have probably written other blog posts about it before - it was more than about ceramics, and it was more than a class.

One of the assignments we had, every semester, was to create a postcard - it should incorporate visuals and text, have our portrait on it somewhere, and illustrate what our artistic mission statement was. I did a set of postcards one semester, the semester I was also taking printmaking, and did a bunch of wood blocks with different cups and vases on them. Since then, it's been folded into part of my unconscious doodle repertoire. 

Part of it is that the first semester of ceramics you only made one thing: cups. Cups, cups, cups, cups, cups. We'd watch slideshows of Ron Nagle cups, go to exhibits focused on cups... and have trash-ceremonies if someone brought in a cup that was machine-made. It's the perfect vessel. It's so much more than you think it can be. It can also be so simple, beautiful, and functional. 

My instructor said - to get a C, make 6 cups. To get an A, make 30. So I made hundreds. I made so many I gave them away to anybody who would take them. I frequently visit people all over the country and am surprised by a vaguely familiar looking cup in their cupboards. 

So.. in any case. I like cups.

Sharpie, metallic watercolors.