Asaph, Leader Of Songs

Potter Motivation

1. Why do you want to do an apprenticeship?

       I want to be a professional Potter. I want to be the best in this medium and with the training of a teacher I can obtain this goal. No where outside of pottery is my patience and concentration so rewarding.

2. What will you gain in technique, aesthetic, and business training?

       Technical expertise will increase the range of my approach to aesthetic development. I am open to learning the finishing methods that define aesthetic choices. Business training will allow me to value my work in a commercially viable process to allow me to run a studio of my own.

3. Do you have academic training in clay? If so, what do you look to gain from an apprenticeship that your education did not fulfill?
    
      The basis of my clay education was through an elective time I spent on an outdoor kickwheel with a soil clay I made over two years. Beyond my self-teaching I spent time in two sets of classes using an electric wheel at a ceramic studio. I am enthusiastic about my apprenticeship coming from my pit-fire experience.

4. What kind of time commitment can you realistically make?

         I can make a major time commitment to this medium given my current living situation. If I make good choices I will not have to worry about rent for a year. Clay is my obsession. I want to make healthy time constraints and seeking an apprenticeship is going to balance my desire in the medium.

5. What is your financial situation? Do you need to find an apprenticeship that pays?

         I am grateful for my current living situation. Housing is not something I am currently worried about. I have visual art forms such as painting I am interested in that I buy supplies for. I want to support my other interests.

6. Are you willing to travel? Do you want to be in a specific place?

    I don’t have a car, I am not looking to any opportunities outside of walking or biking distance. Transportation to the studio is something I want to advocate for myself.

7. Are you interested in learning to work in an established/ traditional aesthetic or an individual creative path?

    The medium of clay is very personal to me. I believe my perspective resonates with traditional vessel artforms that fascinate me. I have read that it is not necessary to duplicate styles of artists. I believe that the concentration demanded of a worked piece will find itself from rigorous discipline.

8. Do you want formal critiques of your work?

I am not sure I am ready for critique. I do not have any fine skills with pottery. There is a divide in my instruction from the intelligent activities I have had with clay. It forms an intense discussion in my life that I want to meet with the work activity of an apprenticeship.

9. Will there be time to make your own work?
   
    I love pottery wheel work. I am also impressed with vessels that are handbuilt. If given time to do my own pieces I would enjoy a gritty clay body to build and rebuild; duplicating my soil clay experience.

10. Where do you want to be creatively and technically at the end of your apprenticeship?

    I desire a set of styles of vessel sculptures that will attract my study over months, weeks, and days. I can go full time with this apprenticeship. I want to be the solution to my challenges and give back the knowledge of ceramic production chemically, structurally, creatively. My ultimate goal is to be able to create pieces that people will be happy to purchase. This is how I hope to support myself in the future.