Haystack this summer

Haystack Experience Summer 2010

 

Upon receiving a forwarded email to my mom from family friend and famous metal sculptor Rico Eastman about the deadline for scholarship applications, I decided ‘what the hell’ and applied for the ‘technical assistant’ position. After my disappointing but somewhat expected letter of refusal, I kept my head up and with a sigh of relief went to my studio to continue my practice, working towards my upcoming show at the Jean B. Chalmers Gallery. A couple days later I was called by Haystack, offering me the position for my first choice session 3 with Tom Spleth and Steven Heinemann! I was so surprised at first and told them I would consider it and then promptly came to my senses and graciously accepted.

 

This was my first time attending The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, ME. It was better than I could have imagined.

 

I came in not really knowing what to expect. I knew little about the school itself or any of the instructors, including Tom and Steven. This was very exciting. I arrived to campus a little early, to be greeted by Stephen Kent, a summer assistant and fellow ceramic artist close to my own age. Next I met one of the other assistants for my workshop, Tim Ayers. I had no idea if I was to be the only TA for this class or what. I soon found out there would be three. I was apprehensive at first, thinking maybe this would suck. Would we be competing for attention, how would this work? It turned out to be a blessing. Tim and Amy Uthus, the other ceramics TAs were both great and fun to work with. The three of us are individual in our personalities, our work, and our experience, amounting to a perfect balance for the class.

 

Since I arrived early I had some time to walk around the campus grounds and ‘relax’, but I couldn’t sit still due to the excitement. I walked the trail around the property, down by the water and got situated in my cabin, surprised to see I would be sharing living quarters with 10 other men. The campus is so beautiful, I thought, as I explored. I am so lucky that this scenery is familiar to me. It never gets old. The Maine coast is certainly still one of the most entrancing and powerfully inspiring places I could ever imagine and to be on a retreat at a world class craft school here in my home state was, at the very least, ideal. The energy inside me that started to build that morning was continuing to build as others started to arrive. I met Tom Spleth, ceramics art guru, and one of the instructors I would be assisting during the workshop. He seemed nice at first impression, soft spoken but a strong, almost intimidating presence. I met Steven Heinemann the following day upon his arrival. He had just completed something like a 16 hour drive from Ontario with his wife and was wearing a bright red t-shirt and highly reflective sun glasses which he failed to remove during our sit-down lunch! Needless to say we were a little intimidated as young assistants.

 

I ended up learning an incredible amount from the instructors, the other TAs, and students in the class. In addition to my own class time, there were lectures by all the other instructors, the other TAs and more that were all very inspiring. This made for very full days. Classes were from 9 – 5 give or take, during which there was little time for my personal work. On top of tech lectures, demos, and assisting the students, there were instructors’ projects to assist with, class clay to prepare, and kilns to fire. This meant staying up late to fit some work in. I knew I wasn’t expected to create a masterpiece here, but I wanted something different to emerge in my work. I wanted to impress and to learn about myself and my work through others and the experience as a whole. This took all of the energy that had been building and after about a week I felt a little burned out. But had I not been so inspired by the environment, the teachers, the students, I feel this piece would never have been created. I certainly would have never learned as much about it.

 

This work is different from what I have been making recently in that it is more sculptural, it was fabricated without a specific utilitarian function in mind, and involves interlocking components. The idea stemmed from another recent piece I made, ‘Corner Vase’ which is a larger piece for me, and is meant to be a ‘part’ of a ‘whole’.  In both pieces, the original model was carved from a rectangle, more or less. This provided me with a ‘square’ corner from which to work. My intension was to leave at least one corner virtually untouched. This comes from my newly attained construction experience and knowledge. Presenting this contrast between rigid, man made and natural, organic form. How can I keep this thing square and plumb on one half and how will this be changed or maintained during firing? What technical challenges arise when the positive square form is molded and becomes a negative void in a larger, rounded, sculptural vessel form? These two pieces that started as one are one and are also two. Are they two vessels? Are they one vessel? Are they hollow or solid? Are they hollow with the perception of solidity? Is this an interactive piece?