Losing Sight

It seems to me that we live in a sight dependent world. Or rather, sight preferring world. So much of the way we design things is based on sight and so their is a dominance or hierarchy of the sense of sight over others. That being said, I think sometimes we forget we're a whole body and perhaps we ought to see if there is something else that would be better for the job at hand.

Take Ceramics. It is becoming increasingly evident to me that less I look at what I'm doing, the better off I am. If I left my hands lead, they have significant more knowledge than I give them credit for. Further, the feedback I get from my hands is much much more accurate than what my eyes are telling me. But here's the Kicker! If I use them together, as partners, then I'm really on to something. Scroll to the bottom to see my most recent ceramics work.

Take Studio. We had a hand in/pin up last week. They are very particular here. We had a board to measure height from the floor. Then there was to be 20mm between each of your 4 boards (pages) both vertically and horizontally, and 100mm horizontally between each students set of 4. It took us all (about 100 people) an hour and a half working for four spots to get it all up on the wall. But wait! the floor is never perfectly straight! Nor is the wall for the matter. and further, human cut board to measure off the floor is not perfectly straight either. People became obsessed with the ruler and the inability to make it all perfect. I said to a classmate, "I'm gonna trust my eyes on this one". She looked at me like I'd just come off a space ship. I'll use the ruler to get the distance, but my eyes to make everything level. Not perfect but wait! It will be viewed by people who will... use their eyes... so if I use my eyes... and it looks right... shouldn't I trust that? The ruler is a tool - to be used with your sight as well as your common sense. But people become obsessed with the procedure and lose sight of the ultimate objective. In this case that was to create a consistent look of a gallery exhibit. Which was achieved.

Here are some pictures from Ceramics today and the Studio Exhibit this week.

First Pitcher of the day

Nicer bowl then last time!

2nd pitcher of the day

third pitcher of the day

My two little jugs

I made 4 things I kept in Ceramics today and worked for about 2 hours. Not too bad! I learned a lot from some of the other girls who were there working today. It helps to collaborate.

Sam (Aussie) helping Jenni (Scotland) hang her work

The exhibit starts to take shape

My work - 2 manipulated photos on top, 2 drawings below

I spent some time with the first years a little while ago. They asked me if I had any advice. I said, "If there is one thing and only one thing you focus on, try and approach each assignment looking for the ultimate goal. What is my professor trying to teach me using this project. What do they want me to learn. Specifically. Once you know that, focus all your questions, all your uncertainties, all your explorations around that thing. You can't go wrong." 

Don't lose sight of what your ultimate goal is. Why are you doing whatever it is that you're doing.  Focus in on that and go for it. And don't worry about the rest. Trust Yourself.