Ellen Shankin

Useful Pots – Aesthetic Choices

Course Description
Potters, throughout history, have sat before their work and asked the same questions: where to put the spout, where to puff out the belly of the curve, what kind of knob for a particular jar. Tradition has dictated many of the answers...but we are free to choose. We can look at the expressive qualities that come from all kinds of possible solutions. This workshop will look at the decisions we make, consciously or unconsciously, in bringing a form to life. All of the choices - contour, line, volume, surface, rim, foot, scale, gesture - add up to give pottery a voice...a point of view...an emotional content. We will consider how many of those decisions we are making and how many are being made for us by gravity or inattention. Through demonstration, conversation, slides, and a few directed projects, we will explore the expressive nature of clay in the realm of thrown and altered functional pots.