I just happened upon a letter I had written to Betty in December 1984. I was in my second year of undergrad art school and was making my first dinnerware set for her. The letter was explaining the detailed process of the creation and was to be tucked in with the set as her Christmas gift that year. This Christmas was already special. Aaron was a year old and Betty was six months pregnant with who we would soon know was Mary Elizabeth. In the middle of the letter, I expressed my understanding that I was fully aware of the precarious nature of my decision to be an artist knowing I was responsible for getting all of us “on our feet.” Being an artist for me was not only a sincere decision to a calling, laying aside the idea of money and career, but also a casting of my family into a vast unknown; how was I ever to create a warm, safe, abundant and sustained environment for my family by making art? However in describing the process of making I was affirming to Betty my commitment to the decision. I was going to study night and day availing myself of all the knowledge of art-making that the university could offer me in the understanding that my commitment to my education was the sure door to our family's future as well as to being a successful sculptor. Those nine years of study and three degrees have never failed me or my family and have remained my bar for student success and commitment in the two University 3-D programs I have created. Although none of this would have been possible without God’s sustaining, a university education remains one of my four greatest life experiences.
P.S. To you potters out there: I was describing to Betty the process of making a 12-place dinnerware set, even down to creating a new cone 5 salt glaze (years before cone 6 was even heard of much less an industrial created option) that would work, fit and even doing tests to ensure a steak knife would not scratch the glaze and firing a salt kiln.
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| Working on my latest sculpture and my last show at Union. |
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