Cheryl L Litman on sun 26 jul 98
In the spirit of Joyce Lee, I'd like to offer some musings about what
I've been up to...
Our guild just put together our first ever big show and sale and although
I've known about it for some time, I was quite undecided on what to make
for the show. Although I've been dabbling in clay for 10 years, it's
only in the last few that I've considered myself an "artist". In all
this time, I never settled on a style or form and just experimented with
everything I saw. I'm pretty much a thrower but started taking a lot of
handbuilding workshops because that's what I've been teaching to kids and
I wanted to know more about technique than handbuilding 101. For this
show, I needed to focus on one aspect. With one month left, I needed to
get very busy - and I did, picked one idea (handbuilding) and went with
it.
Out of this show, I've finally found an idea I want to stick with for a
bit, one that's all my own and that I love making. The pieces I put on
display were just the beginnings of this idea and I want to spend a long
time developing it to see where it goes. If not for the pressure of this
deadline, I would still be off in dozens of directions trying a little
bit of everything. There's nothing like the pressure of not wanting to
embarrass oneself to put things in perspective. I feel like I've made
more progress in the past month than in the past year. I learned how to
solve so many technical problems, efficient production of multiples,
supporting large work, a new "organic" glaze palette...
It's exciting and energizing and for me a first to feel so strongly about
wanting to make and explore one form. Now I just need a good workshop in
larger scale handbuilding - suggestions? I also know that I made life
more difficult for myself in the clay body I've been using so I need to
find a good sculptural body as well.
That's all other than to say that a lot of the growth in the past year
and the willingness to toss out the narrow rules I learned at the
community college comes from reading clayart. Thanks for the wonderful
network!
Cheryl Litman
Somerset, NJ
email: cheryllitman@juno.com
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