Adrian Wade has been teaching her Intro To Pottery class how to create sculptural busts out of clay. A few students have been willing to share what their pieces look like in progress.
Izzy Badeau, a freshman, decided to create a demon’s hand. She explained that her inspiration to make such an abstract piece came from recent emotions she’s been experiencing. “I wanted to demonstrate how I feel my life is going right now. I’m not really a super creepy person, but I can be, and this hand is supposed to express that side to me. It’s supposed to be based off of a normal hand, like my life is based off of what some people would consider normal, and then it molds into something more abstract and creepy, just like my life has it’s weird kind of twists to it.”
Madeline Goddard, a senior, decided to create a hand as well, however, her bust demonstrates a completely different interpretation. “Hands kind of fascinate me with how they’re structured and how the fingers and the palms work together. I mostly wanted to try and tackle a part of the human body with this project and thought that doing a hand would be cool in terms of capturing motion. With every finger movement, different muscles in the palm flex and stand out. Also I knew it would be a challenge and I really wanted to push myself and see what I could do with it.”
Kaylyn Crompton, a senior, chose to sculpt a bird with its wings spread far apart, as if it were about to take off. “I don’t have any specific passion for birds,” Kaylyn explained, “but I was excited to try and make one because I got this vision. I wanted to portray the feeling of being set free, and a bird getting ready to fly away represented that to me. I knew it was going to be hard to do since that kind of emotion isn’t an easy one to make people feel, but I thought I should at least try. I don’t know if the final product will have that effect on others, but for myself, the bird definitely represents that freedom I was hoping it would”.
Grace Wilcox, a sophomore, decided to create a horse bust because of her love for horses. “I have a horse of my own back at home who I love a lot. I’ve got a passion for horses and so when we were told we could build anything, I knew right away it would have to be a horse. They are kind of my life, so it’s just the first thing I thought to make.” Her horse passion was what initially urged her to create a horse, yet, there’s something more to the sculpture Grace hoped to portray. “I still have a lot of work to do, especially with the legs, but in the end I want everyone to see the beauty in horses that I see. I was hoping to create something that makes other people feel passion towards them like I do.”
Once the sculptures have been fired and glazed, the Chronicle will ask the artists to reflect on how their final product came out. Until then, each will continue working hard on perfecting their pieces.