Charles G Hughes on thu 1 jun 00
I graduated from high school in 1987. Not knowing what to do with my life
and lacking basic business skills I went for a minimum wage job at a local
convenience store. Within 3 years I was the in management sometimes as full
manager and sometimes as assistant. A year later I had reached the end of my
tolerance for neurotic customers and late night binge drinkers. At the age
of 21 I enrolled as a freshman at Penn State University with an undeclared
major. I was seeing a nice young lady at the time who was enrolled in a
ceramics class. Well my sweetheart took me into the studio and showed me the
basics of centering and pulling and I was hooked. I took to it easily. Soon
I was a declared Art Major and then I applied for BFA.
As a BFA student there were a lot of responsibilities. We were expected
to produce a large amount of work and it was expected to be examined
critically in a group, privately and by the professor and then refined for
it's next incarnation. We were also expected to help with maintenance and
cleaning as well as acting as friendly tutors to the beginning classes. I
have to say that our ceramics dept was the envy of the art department. We
would always receive complements about how friendly and nice our students
were. As far as the work goes, there was a lot of emphasis placed on
creativity but not much on technical skills. We were expected to pick that
up during the process of creating and refining our artistic visions. In the
studio there were a lot of murmuring about clay students lacking the skills
and information to enter the world of clay as a business. The general
response was that we were in art majors to learn about making art and not
how to market our work. There were also questions about the lack of
technical instruction. The situation was summed up by our technician, "(The
goal of undergraduate school in ceramics is to teach you how to ask the
questions that will allow your work to continue to evolve. The rest is up to
you)" I took this to mean we should learn how to look critically at our work
and make decisions based on that critique on how to make it better,
including technical skills.
Unfortunately I never finished my degree, I have a few credits
remaining, however I am up to my elbows in mud everyday and making a living.
Perhaps I'll finish someday, but I am not sure what the degree will bring me
other than the chance to then get and MFA which would then give me the right
to teach at a university level. Is it worth it? I don't know. Perhaps when
my body gives out and I can't make thousands of pots a year it would be nice
to have an alternative income and health care via a university. Until I
decide to do that I am happy making my work and questioning it and changing
it. I don't need a professor to make me evolve anymore because my
undergraduate teachers were successful in teaching me how to ask the
questions myself.
One of my latest self critiques made me decide to teach myself how to
throw with the speed and skill of a production potter. After reading Mel's
post on the huge order of tea bowls and how exacting the details on the pots
were, including the wobble, I deciding that my forms were simple enough that
they did not require "one off" techniques, but would be best and most
economically thrown by production means. I was simply being a slacker and
trying to get by with barely adequate technical skills. Having the skills to
throw production doesn't mean you have to always use them. One offs are
still possible, however it is just another technique available to help me
accomplish what I want to accomplish. So I have endeavored to throw
production. I have started small with 25 pieces at a time. I have been
giving good quality time to preparing the clay, I'll wedge up 25 balls of
clay, put them in a big bucket beside the wheel and set up a ware board on
the other side. The first few batches were very inconsistent, but the latest
batch of bowls were wonderful. 25 small bowls (2lbs) stacked rim to rim and
foot to foot. It was a deep pleasure. I will be at a show this weekend, but
when I return I am going to up my production to 50 at a time. 10 years and
still a novice....
-Charles
http://www.thecreativeoasis.com/Hughes/hughes.html
From: vince pitelka
To:
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2000 10:42 PM
Subject: Re: the state of the art degree
>
> We have been around and around on this, so I am not going to repeat myself
> much, except to say that there are some faculty out there who do not
provide
> the appropriate amount of guidance or information, and that is a shame.
But
> anyone who makes it through a BFA program and in retrospect considers it a
> waste of time must accept the lion's share of responsibility for that time
> wasted. The key to success in almost any endeavor is to make the most of
> every situation. You had the tools and the opportunity to do so. Who's
> fault is it that you did not?
> - Vince
>
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