post-graduate

Alumni, alumna, alumnus, etc. Not even sure what this means, as a blog. Not sure what to write about, not sure if my thoughts and ramblings have any real purpose other than giving a slight glimpse into the reason I make what I make—or don’t make what I don’t.

This summer I focused on was little projects for my wedding, place cards, invitations, programs, seating charts, sourcing vintage post cards to write thank you notes on, painting hairbrushes and hangers for my bridesmaids, and other small things I should not have attempted to do all on my own. Most of them turned out how I’d like, but I’m not going to pretend that everything was picture perfect. Here’s some pictures nevertheless.

Between the crafting sessions for the wedding and a few weekend trips I spent my summer working at K12 Gallery & TEJAS in Dayton, Ohio. There I taught various art mediums to kids in grades K-8. I also worked on cleaning their ceramics studio and recycling clay. I was able to teach drawing, painting, wheel throwing, hand-building, sculpture, and a class with all Minecraft themed projects. Surprisingly, teaching the middle schoolers was much harder than teaching the elementary aged students. The middle school kids think they know enough not to listen to you while you’re teaching, and they don’t pay attention to demonstrations because they are just looking at their phones. I tried my best to assure them that they would get better at throwing on the wheel after the first try, and that making Giacometti inspired sculptures out of wine corks and yarn would eventually be rewarding. Some students particularly enjoyed making tic-tac-toe sets out of clay and glazing their first ever wheel thrown pieces, so that was exciting. I’m not sure I inspired any of them to pursue the arts, but hopefully I gave them an environment to experiment and enjoy being creative. The younger kids had more fun with their projects, so I have more pictures of those. Little clay aquariums, pet portraits, pinch pot caterpillars.

Anyways, enough from me about this summer. Stay tuned for updates on the fall.

-MD