Tell me some about your senior project. 

Basically my senior project right now has been going through a lot of changes, trying to figure out what I want to focus on. Like if I want to do sculpture or wheel. I've kind of come to the conclusion that I want to focus on these key terms — growth and moving forward. There's been a lot of change and I've done a lot of thinking. I kind of want to keep the more optimistic side of things while also showing the negative and how it's forced me to change how I think I'm working and my process. 

What type of work are you doing for it? 

I want to do sculpture that's taller than people. It'll be a mix of hand building and wheel work and composite forms, bringing those together and making sculptures that are larger than people. I want to have people walk around to understand the piece and take some time with it. 

I'm kind of focusing on how when NEC  took us in that changed everything for me. At first it was kind of catastrophic, but now it's “All right, how do I work with this?” This is a reasonable change that can be thrown on me anytime. When I graduate, I'm not going to have the same resources so it was really pushing me to make work based on change that is out of my control. 

Is that a typical theme in your work? 

Not usually. Previous works have been assignments. This is the most personal work I've started to make so far. I'm way out of my comfort zone trying to pick something to focus on. Last semester I was focusing on surfaces. I'll show you. I have an unfinished donut that needs to be glazed. So my work looked like this. I really admire abstraction and that's the way I want to go. Basically abstract sculpture, it's always been interesting to me and it's so exciting. It's like, “how can I make something like that?” I'm focusing more on abstract that affects the audience, how the audience affects that, where it is and its environment.

 What are some of your inspirations?

Realistically everybody. The students around me are the best, every time I see their work, I'm just always so struck by what they're making. I'm currently focusing on people working in installation, which is the direction I want to go in. Courtney Madison is one of them. She works specifically with making coral sculptures and putting them on walls, making installations of coral to help raise awareness of what's happening to our oceans. I just think that's really beautiful and that's one of the things where I think “Wow, she's really working hard to have the work have an impact on the audience.” Kate Roberts is a new artist I'm looking at, she makes very large installations and she uses various things. She makes these pedestals and work that’s very ambiguous and mysterious, but also entraps you to look at it. I’m also looking at Dell Haro. He makes abstract work and geometric sculptures. He also works with installation and he ranges in size. He has pieces that are super, super tiny but also ones five times larger. There's a lot of people I'm really looking into for inspiration to push myself on scale, theme and installation. 

Do you want your work to be something like Courtney Madison's and impacting the world? 

Not necessarily the world, but I guess the people around me, if I can connect with one person, that's all that really matters to me. If I could connect with 10, that's great, but I don't need the whole world to understand my work. Because there's always going to be one person who doesn't get it and hates it. 

What is your studio like right now?

Well right now I'm kind of calling it a Franken-studio, it's all over the place. It's great. It's chaotic but it's very secluded. Which is kinda nice because I can tone out to my own jams and not have to worry about bothering anybody, but I do miss the interactions with other ceramicists and having that flow of creative artists around me.

 How is being the only ceramics senior impacting your senior year? 

I constantly have the fear of missing out. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on the critiques that past seniors have gotten. I'm kind of sad about it, but at the same time I have an advantage because it's gonna force me to grow more and to reach out to other fields. I've been invited to other senior critiques and I love being a part of them. I think I'm getting more out of it because I have so many different people and their genres and mediums of work. It gives me so many different perspectives and outlooks that are helping me make my work. 

Where do you want to take your work after you've graduated? 

Well, after I graduate with my BFA in ceramics, I will have a year of student teaching since I'm also in Art Ed. My main goal is to settle down, maybe teach in a traditional school setting. Then once I've got my stuff together and I have the means, I want to start my own ceramic studio and teach all ages out of there. That is my top goal where I want to embrace ceramics helping people trying something new. Watching someone develop who's not particularly an artist is really exciting because they're pushing themselves, they're out of their comfort zone saying “I'm going to do this.” And I’m like, “yeah, you are.” It's just really exciting to watch that happening and watch them metamorphosize being in a place that's comforting and respectful and safe to be creative.

How far do you think you've personally come since beginning college? 

I feel like I've grown a lot just by interacting with so many different people, going through student teaching, learning, writing papers and researching. I feel like I've really expanded on my own knowledge of how to understand and interact with the people around me more. When I came to school I didn't even know I wanted to be a teacher. The art education ladies were like, “Hey, you’d make a great teacher” and I was like “All right, you convinced me.” I definitely see more pathways now than when I started college. I felt like I was in a snow globe and now I feel like that snow globe has opened up and I have way more opportunities and options that I can take.

 So the teachers here led you down this path of art ed, what about the other students? 

I feel like my peers have changed my art more than anything. Just seeing them grow has been an inspiration to help me grow and to keep making work. Cause there are some times where I'm like, “why am I doing this?” Then I look around and I see what everyone else is making and I'm like, “this is why, no questions, no doubt about it, this is what I want to be doing.” They're very reassuring. I am not always the most involved with my peers, but when I am, there's this wholesome connection that I feel we have. When we can all agree on something or we vent about something or even like during critiques there's just this overall sense of community and it's super, super comforting to know that we have that. 

What advice would you have for underclassmen? 

Just keep pushing forward. It kind of sucks. Sometimes college is hard. Life is hard. Sometimes school seems impossible, but if you keep pushing and moving forward you'll be fine. If you feel like you need help, there's so many people who want to help you and who will help you. I've been scared to reach out for help before, but when I did reach out for help, I would find it. Just keep swimming.