Creativity with a capital "C" is more then just intrepetation and mirroring. A truely creative act jumps past mere intrepertation and mirroring (reflecting what is already out there.)

I wonder what pushed Hans Cooper and Peter Voulkos into true creativity. Both of them started out as ordinary potters, then after much practice and reflection, went beyond the standards of the day.

I think of Jimmy Hendrix, another artist who was a compentant blues player, then pushed forward and created something complete different.

Last SaturdayI did some nice bowels and played with some glaze patterns.

Spring break is over. I did clean out my garage, and I have a large pile of old stuff I'm throwing out.

Our instructor said he was going to show an hour-long video in Monday's class, but he didn't bring the video with him. I ususally get to the class at least a half-hour before it starts, but this time I didn't start earlier, since I didn't want to start working and then have the clay dry out while we watched the video. I lost about 45 minitues of class time

Spring break is next week, March 13 to March 19. I don't like the prospect of leaving the studio for a week, and putting my art skills on hold. Since the school's ceramic studio will be closed, I'll just have to enjoy the free time.

Since I don't have to be in the studio next Saturday, my goal is to use the time to clean out my garage. I have too many books stored in empty wine boxes, and I need to cull my collection.

My other goal is to sketch out my pottery ideas for the rest of the semester. There are approximately two months left in the semester, and I want to make the best use of my time by having some sort of a plan or goals to work toward.

Today we turned in our paper and gave a short talk about the artist. I selected Hans Coper. I was surprised that no one else used the computer and projector for their talk. I put together a few slides of Coper's work, then posted them online. I also had a backup copy on my thumbdrive, just in case the internet connection was down.

The presentation was fairy easy. Titled "Hans Coper: The Development of his Forms," I just talked about the slides on the large screen. I made a short story out of the slides, showing how Coper's work progressed thoughout his career. My paper was short, at 10 pages, double-spaced, but I could easily write a short book on this subject. For my paper, I only picked a few representative samples. Next semester, I might write a more indepth paper on Hans Coper for this course.

With the paper, I have finished all my requirements for the class but one, the final project. I been spending every Saturday in the studio, plus extra time during the week, so that put me ahead of the game.

I'm finally able to create a nice cylinder and I'm working on bowels. I want to create a aesthically pleasing form, but I'm still learning what is considered a good form. I am beoming more sentisitve to the nuances of bowl shapes by studying photographs of nice bowls, but the shapes I throw on the wheel are just average student shapes. Each shape I throw is a little better, but intelligent practice and reflection is the best way to learn.

To get better shapes, I'm going to try two approaches:

1. I made a few copies of photographs of ceramics that I found to have beatuful shapes. I'll use the photographs as examples when throwing on the wheel.
2. I might even go a further step and make a cardboard template of the vessels contour. I can place the template right on my bowel and make them match up.

I only want to use the photographs and template as a scaffaolding to realizing my own forms. I do not want to just be a hack, using other peoples ideas as my own.

Finally, the first glaze firing happened. Last night we were able to get a peek at our work. My ceramic pieces were in the middle of the kiln, buried from view. The pieces were still hot, at about 300 degrees F, so we couldn't take anything out of the kiln.

Next Monday we should be able to view our work in it's totality.