Get ready to read a novel.

So, I said I would do a big update right? Well... I warned you. I have been putting this off for way too long, and I hate making really long blog posts because I know the likelihood of people reading them drops dramatically. But- I hope this works out and doesn't bore everyone to death.

Last semester ended with not much of a bang. I was in a depression that lasted me up until about 5 weeks ago. I hadn't been sleeping good and had been struggling with ideas for thesis and felt as if I was going no where. Wanting so badly to get out of my shell and explore life, yet being locked down and unable to do anything has its toll on you.

My back has been giving me problems for a long time but just over the past 10 months or so my back had been aggravated more so than before. Partially I think this aided in prolonging my depression; when my body doesn't feel good, it is hard for me to mentally be alright. I decided to go in to the doctor and find out what was wrong with my back.

Immediately I was put into an x-ray and the doc told me that I would be going into physical therapy and if the problem was still there, I'd go in for a CT scan. A week later I got a phone call telling me I was being scheduled for a CT scan immediately, which alarmed me. Evidently somethings wrong with my back because it was so urgent. So, I go in and have the CT scan and then get sent to a back specialist who basically tells me that, yes, my back has some damaged disks but there was basically nothing that warranted surgery. He scheduled me for a full body bone scan as my next step.

Well, I go in and have the scan and a few days later get a phone call telling me that my back was fine, nothing was broken, and that they wanted to schedule me for a cranial CT scan due to an abnormality in my skull. Freaky right? I go in and have the scan and then a few days later I get the phone call that no one should get. I was told, over the phone, that I have a tumor in my cranium. What? Yea, a tumor.

Here I am, with my back killing me 1/4 of the day and the rest of the time I am in pain but it is manageable, and they can't figure out whats wrong with my back (still haven't figured it out...) but now I have a damn tumor in my head? Great news... this fueled my depression even more.

To bring some good news, evidently the tumor was caused by a car accident I had in Oct of 2007. I hit my head pretty damn hard against my window... evidently it can cause tumors. The thing, I haven't named it yet, is about the size of a marble and it is not cancerous. It will more than likely never grow and I will more than likely never have complications.

No worries about me, my head will be fine. I just wish I knew what was wrong with my back... I relate it to an incident that occurred in middle school where I was pushed off a table and nearly folded my back in half, I haven't been 'right' since then. But I hope that I can help combat this with healthier eating and exercise/stretching. It will be very hard to be a life-long potter when I have back problems at 24.

So, about thesis. Right? I mentioned it... haven't talked more about it. Well, lets just say I finally have an idea. I will save details for another post, as in I already feel this one is too long. Mostly everyone knows these details, but I feel compelled to write them down.

I'll try and write another blog in a few days about my thesis project. So far, I am ahead of the game. I have an idea, it involves bowls not jugs, and my committee is behind me 100% and are looking forward to me finishing. I am looking forward to finishing, I can't wait. I'll be graduating (unless something terrible happens..) in December! Excited much!

Until next time ;) Thanks for reading!

Update + Video

Hey Everyone,

I was just pointed to a thread on Reddit of a pottery students work and it reminded me to update my blog. They have a very good start on their work, very interesting and creative. Creativity is something that I lack a lot of. I am creative when it comes to making renaissance cloths, jewelry, etc. But ceramics... I am more focused on traditional form and more of a contemporary glaze treatment.

This is a problem for me when it comes to developing a body of work for my senior thesis. My idea was to do large regional jugs scaled around 3 feet tall. These jugs were to be modeled after different traditional forms that all helped contribute to the expansion and development of pottery in America. French, German, English, American. All of these countries, plus others, have unique preferences when it comes to pottery, specifically jugs. American pottery is a conglomeration of these different preferences and an evolution of the style as settlers moved west across the continent.

Now, producing 8, large scale (roughly 5 gallon), jugs would be a hard undertaking for me, but it is nothing I feel I cannot handle. I am more secure with my throwing and assemblage. But my committee chair has other thoughts. He feels that what I am doing is not artistic and that it does not reflect upon what I have learned in art school. He wants me to reinvent the jug. Now, when asked about ideas on how to do this, I mentioned Paul Soldner ( an example of his work is to the left) and how he would take boards with different textures and use them to compress his wheel thrown forms. This idea was struck down saying "why does it have to be texture?" and the ideas that Butch brought up involved drawing cartoushes of greek allegories.... how the hell is that reinventing something that has been done so much that it is now cliche? And his other idea... make an "NFL" jug. Yes... NFL. I told him that was rediculous and that I have a strong distaste for sports and I will not go against my judgement and do something so stupid. His responce... "Well jugs look like footballs." Whatever. I still want to do my idea because I feel it would be better than 3/4 of what has come out of my school in the past 5 years and that I can confidently accomplish this. Anything else... who knows. I got stuck doing something I didn't want to do last time... this time I am trying my damndest not to do that.

And for an update on my jug and drum.... well the jug is in our gas kiln cooling down right now, cone 10 firing. My drum on the other hand cracked and split in two. The bowl and the base are now separated but I will be glazing them back together and hoping that it works out for the best. Always learning... I feel that the weight of the bowl sitting on the stem put pressure on the joint and caused the break. I'll have to figure out another design that can work without leaving weak points.

I have a paper to write today and I really don't know who I want to write it about. Pretty bad eh? My paper is meant to be over anyone whom I have previously written about in a journal entry but my journal is with my professor... Meh.

I'll leave you with a video for a documentary about Paul Soldner. If anyone wants to buy this for me, I'll love you :)

"New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become."
-Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions