i remember (way back when), thinking to myself, when can i legitimately call myself an artist? first, i seemed confident in giving myself the title when i earned my BFA. when i earned my MFA i became an official expert in the field of ceramic art....i guess? i know of many people who haven't been educated in the visual arts yet are better artists than myself. what do i mean by better, you may be asking yourself? i have always been a creative person but not so skillful. my ideas seem to be never ending but the challenging technicalities in making the work sometimes prevent me from accomplishing a satisfactory piece. i don't just work in clay i make art out of; plaster, wax, crochet, bronze, fiber, found-object, pen&ink, etc. when i decided to get degrees in ceramics it was because of the smell of clay. my grandma was a china painter. she bought chinaware and painted flowers, birds, leaves and that sort of thing onto the ware, fired each piece many times before it was completed. almost every sunday all her children (eunice, marge, don and jim) and her grandchildren (tommy, bobby, donny, benny, gail, me, laura, mike, david, stevie, jojo, kevie, lisa, katrina, danny and john) would gather at their lakeside home in pontiac michigan. we all had such a blast together!! we would swim, boat, look for turtle eggs and snakes, pick berries, apples and other fruits and veggies in the summer. my grandpa built us a skating rink and sled hill in the winter. christmas eve was our special holiday as one big happy family. all the youngest grandchildren would look out the window after dinner and wait for santa to come and bring us presents. it was an extra special day because we were rarely allowed into the upper story of their home (i guess they thought we might get into some kinda mischief?). we would sing christmas carols to santa and he would leave as swiftly as he came. what happy, happy times those were for me!! sometimes in the year the weather might be too bad to skate or to cold to swim so many of us would make artwork in their "back room". sometimes we would make little things out of clay and grandma would fire them for us. three of the grandkids went unto higher education in visual art but i would say there wasn't a one of us who isn't creative! we were allowed to explore and have fun making stuff even though both my grandparents were quite strict (especially my grandpa). my grandma was way ahead of her time! housework came second, art came first. she loved to laugh but she was not super warm (if you know what i mean?). i miss my grandparents, all of them! i wish they were here, right at this very moment so i could give them a big hug, tell them how much i love and miss them!! they created my wonderful parents who learned from them that it is ok to be creative in all that you do. it's ok to be and think differently than everyone else. my mom went to high school at cass tech in detroit to learn art, she later took classes at the center for creative studies. my dad doesn't think he is an artist, but he is one of the most creative people i know! i think i was born to be an artist and i don't need a degree to know that! some of my students think clay is dirty, they don't like it when it gets on their clothes. clay isn't dirty to me and the smell of it is almost always wonderful.
