Practice Makes Perf-…You Better.

“Hello, my name is Trish O’Donnell, and I am a recovering perfectionist.”

Step one is admitting to the problem. I say “recovering” because I will never stop being a perfectionist. I have obsessed with doing everything as perfectly as possible for as long as my memory goes back. It has been something I have prided myself in, because I am determined and have high standards, but I have to be honest and acknowledge that my perfectionism really gets in the way of my productivity as an artist.

I know I am not alone with this issue, as artists we are our own worst critic. While in my Master’s program, professor Patrick Grisby would constantly repeat the mantra, “Let go! Get out of your own way,” and these wise words are what I repeat to myself and to my students as we make art. We are practicing, better yet, we are playing and experimenting when we are making art…why worry about it being perfect? Just let it happen, let go of the control and let the process guide you.

Practice. Play. Experiment. These words are not intimidating. Thinking of art making in these terms will lead us to becoming better artists. Through the continual practice of something, we shouldn’t be striving for perfection. Let’s be honest, perfection isn’t attainable. Through practice though, we do become better and the intention of our art practice  becomes a lot clearer in our mind and heart.

Last night I treated myself to clay class. The project was to make a press mold pot with coil decorations and textured shapes on the top portion. I had no preconceived notion as to what I was going to make, or what I wanted the outcome to look like, and for me this is a very important part of my practice and my recovery of being a perfectionist. Let go. Play. Experiment. Have fun, and don’t worry about what it turns out like, because through manipulating the material we learn and we glean processes and aesthetics we can use again in our next works. Practice makes us better…better artists, better teachers, and better people.

after rolling out a 1/4 slab, i broke the slab in half. first i laid one piece into the bowl mold and carefully smoothed it into the form. after scoring and slipping, i laid the second half into the bowl form making sure to overlap the first slab piece. then i smoothed the two pieces together and used a rib to make the seam disappear.

this is what the clay looked like part way through blending the two slabs together.

after blending the two slabs together, i took a cutting tool and trimmed the bowl so that it was flush with the inside edge of the mold. i used a hand held cheese cutting wire (looks like a handle in the shape of a goal post with a wire across), but a sharp fettling knife or tool would work too.

i used some martha stewart press molds that i got at joann fabric and crafts to make some beautiful flowers. make sure to dust the molds with cornstarch so that the clay pops out of the mold nicely. i positioned where i wanted the flowers, traced them with a pencil tool, and then cut out the space i was fitting them in. score- slip- score and blend the cut-out flower into the bowl form.

i proceeded to make coils in the form of spirals and curves to lay over my flowers and build the decorative edge of the top my pot. with every added coil i scored and slipped them on and blended the interior of the pot, leaving the exterior to show the layers and designs.

i added a variety of clay balls as a decorative feature to fill in the spaces. i didn’t worry too much about cracks and blemishes in my clay as this project was as exercise in working quickly and experimenting with techniques.

I will revisit this post once i have fired and glazed the pot to show the final product. It was a lot of fun to make and in total took me about 3 hours. I used a cone 5/6 stoneware as my clay body. The project was designed by ceramics instructor and artist, Belinda Glennon.