My current fad is the use of soda ash, twenty-mule-team Borax, and TSP solutions sprayed on to raw clay surfaces - especially surfaces created from dry clay embedded in the moist surface of a clay body prior to the surface being stretched. Firing is cone 10 gas kiln.
I think that painting everyone with the same brush is inherently inaccurate. I submit there are many people who do not justify their good fortune in earning a degree by assuming negative things about others who did not/were not able to go the same route. Just because someone is educated and has a degree, that does not automatically tell anybody anything about their life, their values, their struggles, their pain (or joy), their economic status (good or bad) or their politics/philosophy/world view.
I always wanted to study art and the creative process as expressed in this and other cultures, now and in history. The value of formal education in developing my skills in ceramics is worth 1000xs the price, for many reasons, and it is still paying off to this day. As someone who earned a BFA from an esteemed art school, while on welfare and struggling mightily as a single parent with a toddler in tow, and 20 years older than the other students, in deep poverty, at times homeless, with many other crippling hardships, plus the add-on of student loans, I must assert how enriching, valuable, freeing, and supportive of my creative expression and drive, and my very survival, the experience was.
What I got was a sterling education from the best faculty of knowledgible, competant, and skilled artists/instructors one could ever want. I have carried and used the benefits of that excellent education throughout all aspects of my life, not just in art interactions, but in ctitical thinking, world-view, career, understanding people and cultures, and many other areas of functioning. My formal training was invaluable and has enhanced my creative expression and appreciation of crafts & art. It took nothing away from my innate creative drive, my ideas, my self-concept/identity, or my preferences for working with my materials. When someone is being derisive and dismissive of that "piece of paper" Old Lady's line comes to mind: "putting you down does not raise me up." Or rather, putting me down does not raise you up.
This serves to remind me how lucky I was.
My access to the studio was well worth the money I paid. The time spent improved my understanding of ceramics from beginning to end. I left with a solid foundation to set up anywhere I can lay down cinderblocks.
Thinking about it, I may have a bias of sorts. . . I still judge a pot by whether it looks/feels overweight, if it is heavier than I think it should be, it goes back in the bucket, as no amount of trimming will make up for poor throwing.
C.Banks got a reaction from Deleted user in QotW: What is your favorite glaze effect?
C.Banks got a reaction from LeeU in QotW:What is the value of formal education in developing Ceramic skills?
