Kingston Ceramics Studio

Kingston Ceramics Studio

Years ago I was a special education middle school teacher in Brooklyn, New York. While I loved that job, I would daydream about becoming an artist and living a different life. Instead, I took Saturday morning ceramics classes, and though I had no idea at that time, it would change my life.

I had tried to take ceramics classes before, several times. Each time, I felt intimidated and unable to imagine that I would ever be able to make anything. I looked around at what others were making, and felt insecure about trying (and possibly failing!) to make anything in front of other people (This was way back when I thought other people cared about what I did.). I think the experience of teaching showed me that people build skills over time, and that they only way to improve is to try (and fail!). When I started ceramics class as a way to relax from the stress of teaching, it finally stuck. Over time, slowly, my skills improved and after a while I was making things that I didn’t want to immediately throw away. While I was always very critical of the objects I made, I was absolutely in love with the process of working with clay. I was learning lessons in ceramics that paralleled what I needed to learn in life generally, and I began to realize that perfection is not within my reach (and it never will be, whew... the pressure was off!), and that there can be unequaled beauty in imperfection. I was also learning how to do my best work, with attention and patience, knowing that while the results will never be perfect, I am deeply satisfied by being in the flow of doing what I love.

Five years after starting ceramics as a hobby, I decided I needed a change and left teaching, but had no idea what to do next. I wanted to be an artist, but it seemed like an unattainable dream. I went to school for graphic design figuring that was a compromise between paying my bills and being an artist. All along, I still took clay classes, and loved it more than anything else. When I graduated from my commercial art program, I applied to a fine arts program to focus on my real passion, clay. I had learned that spending my time doing what I loved was the most important thing to my sense of life satisfaction. I was reminded that future was not known, so I shouldn't imagine I knew what would happen, good or bad. My job was to just take the next step forward.

I graduated with my fine arts degree in ceramics from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 2008, just months before the economy would almost come to a halt; a daunting year for any graduate, let alone a ceramicist! I worked as an artist’s assistant, online tutor, real estate photographer, freelance graphic designer, and babysitter. In 2010, I landed a job as a ceramics studio manager in Rhinebeck, N.Y., and in 2013, I became the director of a community art center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where I had an opportunity to start a program from scratch, with a team of volunteers and a supportive arts community. I managed the ceramics studio, the galleries, 12 private artist studio spaces, and developed all programming and fundraising. It was a terrific learning experience, and I will never forget the time I was so lucky to spend there.

Last May, I opened Kingston Ceramics Studio where I will be making my own ceramics work while also teaching (I do still love teaching!), and creating community, in Kingston, NY. I could never have imagined the path that took me to where I am now when I began it, and that makes me hopeful for what is next.

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