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I feel life bubbling up in my heart
in a way when I'm making art that doesn't happen in any other way
and when I'm doing that, I know I'm doing the right thing
when I was getting my teaching credentials, I took a ceramics class
and it was all of about ten minutes until i was addicted
my teacher took my hands
he's left handed, so it was really easy for him to sit on the other side of the wheel
and put the same kind of pressure on my hands
that had to happen to center the clay
from his side
and as he pushed my hands down, and I felt that clay go into center
it was just like
one of life's aha moments
it was just, it was so cool
one of the things thats really unique about a wood-fire kiln
is that we learn things about firing
and about the process
not just of firing, but of forming and creating
every time we fire that we didn't know before
when you actually engage with fire
not just the heat
you learn to read it in ways that you're not gonna do if
you're depending on a thermometer or some sort of a gage to tell you how hot it is in there
Students who are currently firing over there right now
are learning to read the fire based on what it smells like
they're learning to read the fire based on nuance and change
from one color to the next
you know, those are important elements that they begin to understand
as far as they understand heat
No two pieces can possibly be the same
its just not possible to do that
because every one of them is created by the flame pattern
as the flame blows across the piece of artwork
and leaves its ash behind
the kiln itself is much more like a riverbed
and the pots are like rocks and boulders and trees
and the pots are like rocks and boulders and trees
and all the things that would impede the flow of water
the firing itself, the process takes about a week
so we came out on Tuesday
and spent all day Tuesday loading the kiln
by Friday, the kiln requires at least three people
all the time
because there's people stoking it on either sides up at the top of the klin
as well as somebody in the front
and so it demands a cooperative effort
and teamwork and trust
on the part of everybody in the process
and so its just a huge community builder
I love bringing people who've never been introduced to Fox before
out to a Fox wood-fire
they're often dumbfounded
they're often dumbfounded
and going 'wow, I never knew this was possible at college'
'it doesn't feel like university to me'
'it feels like'
'family'
we go 'yea, you get it'
yea, that's who we are, that's what we're about, and this is a place where we get to practice that