Kidding and Bessed

He finally did it. After years of talking about it, my high school Yoda had made the decision to retire. He deserves it. I’m surprised he made it to the end without totally losing it. I’m sure he got close. This meant two things: one, the school will need to hire a new teacher (no thank you); two, I would need to befriend this new teacher if we are to get along harmoniously as two studio artists sharing a space. I will miss having my master in the studio but it was time for him to move on and take his career away from the high school setting.

No One to Stop me

The school failed to secure a new teacher and the daytime class was run by the current art teachers. I would be tapped to help keep the studio running. Scheduling firings and maintain the kilns, maintain studio equipment, and hunt for pipes. Yes, no clay pipes in my kilns, last thing we needed was for a kid to get caught smoking weed in the stairwell saying they made the pipe in the ceramics class. As it was, the school wanted to do away with our little evening congregation and a pipe incident would give them a reason to do so. So I followed suit with my former master and any pipe I found was rejected and subsequently destroyed. If you can get a pipe past me, then you may keep it; if I catch it, it will be smashed.

So I did my duty and fired all the work that was made, both daytime students and our night class work. The overall volume of work slowed. I had a lot of freedom and control at this point but still was only able to come into the studio once a week to fire kilns. Occasionally I would be able to get in on an off day but not for very long. Since the firing capacity dropped off when Kidd left, I had more room to fire work. The kilns were not being used as they once were so there was more time to make and fire without worrying about space. So I began to make things that I wouldn’t normally make. Some planters and jars came from this exploratory period.

it was a nice time to play with clay because there was so much kiln space available. It allowed me to get into a head space of planning the next projects without worrying about kiln space. This went on for about a year untill the school finally secured a teacher for the ceramics studio. It was at this point that they decided to axe the night course. That’s right, the school cut the class and suddenly, I was out of a studio. Making ceased. I was thrown into turmoil because the work was hitting a stride and I was making things like I did in college when the flow came to an abrupt end. We had to take all our belongings from the studio.

Another Little Miracle

The parent of the only child student we had in the class raised all 7 levels of hell on the school for cancelling the class. That, along with some gentle, behind the scenes persuasion from a trusted and retired ally within the school helped to get the class reinstated 6 months later. We showed up in the second semester of that school year to find the studio in a state of disarray. There was a new teacher. Who was this person? What kind of background did they have? And why was the studio in shambles? Not knowing the answer to these questions was making me anxious, so I found a pen and some paper and wrote a note for this new person I troducing myself and elaborating on my background, training, and offering assistance in the studio. I found out his last name was Bess so I addressed the letter to Mr Bess and left my phone number at the end expecting a call or text the next day. We left the studio the first night back without making anything and with the hope that we could get along with this new teacher like we did with Kidd.

About 45 minutes after we left I had first contact from Bess. I’m not sure what was going through his mind as he read the note, but soon it would become clear that his presence in the studio would be more than a welcome one, it would be inclusive. He was the type to want to make, stay late and explore the medium, and most importantly, work harmoniously with us. His experience was short and the scope of previous work limited. I had graduated from padawan to master from one day to the next and picked up my first real pupil.p It was clear that I was to remain an influential part of the studio if it were to survive scrutiny from the top brass. I was to teach Bess a crash course in both ceramics and studio performance in order to keep the studio under the radar. So after a quick meet and greet, I began teaching Johnnie Bess as much as I could to get him up to speed with studio practices and educate him on the complexities of ceramics as an art form. Needless to say, this partnership was beneficial for both of us. He learned how to plan and run his daytime courses, and I gained more access to the studio than ever before. It was a handshake. A synchronicity that lead to the type of growth that only comes from having a studio space and an ear to talk art gibberish with. I felt at home again and I had a trained artist whith which to banter about the art process with and not worry about sounding obtuse. This was the start of a period in making that continues to this day.

He took direction very quickly but acted in the same manner, quick. Ceramics is a medium that demands patience or else it reacts in unintended ways like cracking and exploding. I had to quickly teach him the benefits of patience but it want until things started to crack and explode that it started to sink in. I believe that in order to guide, you must first know where you’re going and how to get there. If he were to be successful as the daytime teacher, I would need to make sure he knows more than his students so he could be that guide and have a successful classroom environment. Top brass would not have a reason to cut the class again. We settled into a 2 nights a week schedule to work in the studio, one for the night class, and one night to ourselves without students. This second night for professional development and advancement of projects, it is the handshake day. Ideas get bounced around and subjects are explored and translated to the medium. Technical information is passed down and the studio flourishes a bit more each week that passes. This is the point where we’re at now. Two studio artists making the best out of a space that can now nurture the artistic process from a perspective beyond the singular mind.