Thinking Extremely Far Outside the Box

In my two years of George School, I’ve had some amazing classes with absolutely amazing teachers. I love them all. One person I will never forget is my Ceramics teacher from my freshman year. She is now retired but I spent most of my freshman year with her and with the other ceramics teacher (who I also love), working late into the night in the Ceramics Studio until I had to be told to leave because the building had to be locked for the night.

I always wanted to try out throwing on a wheel but drawing and painting were my main art forms prior to George School. However, my sibling took Painting and Drawing classes when she attended George School so, in an act of rebellion and exploration, I decided to try out Ceramics classes. Obviously, I knew absolutely nothing about ceramics and had no idea what I was doing but my teacher was there every step of the way. She would let me stay after classes to make more pieces, she let me experiment and try new ideas. She always believed in me and my abilities and most importantly would take the time to teach me new techniques.

I think I found my style when working with her. There were set expectations and required projects in class but she let me make whatever ridiculous creation I could think of.  When our assignment was to make three bowls with a specific technique, for example, I did—and then I added legs to the bottom of one of the bowls so it would look like it was standing. There was some weird element or new experiment with each of my bowls and she encouraged me to do more, no matter how weird my ideas were. She taught me how to think extremely far out of the box and taught me to be nothing but myself, not just in Ceramics classes, but also in life.