Hawthorn’s Upper School artists spent two mornings at Toronto’s internationally-renowned, freshly renovated Gardiner Museum this month. On the crispy cold and early mornings of January 23rd and January 30th, we arrived for our gallery visits and studio workshops, thanks to the initiative and enthusiasm of our Visual Arts teacher, Ms Pazooki. With the help of our welcoming, friendly, and expert museum guide Sophia, we learned about key articles in these beautiful exhibits through the lens of the theme Sculpting Identity. Whether First Nations artist Nadia Myre’s intricate assembly of multitudinous clay artifacts and creations which greeted us at the entrance, or ancient clay Peruvian musical instruments (looking perfectly ship-shape and modern after 2,500 years!) formed like birds and animals, or a contemporary Inuit sculpture connecting in one being an infant, a small animal, ancient cultures, and spirit worlds – we got our first taste of the vast and fascinating collection awaiting exploration. We got to sketch and discuss ancient dishes and containers on the upper-floor galleries during our second visit.
Our main activity on each morning was a two-hour pottery wheel workshop where we extended our clay exploration in the Gardiner studios, sculpting our first works of art that express our own identities. So many steps to learn!: kneading the ball of clay; throwing it onto the pottery wheel; centering it (the hardest part!); making an opening; pulling the walls up slowly with consistent speed; shaping; using more water than you’d think; bracing our elbows for stability; keeping our faces directly above the clay looking down; slowing the wheel down to create even walls… No wonder the studio was so quiet – there was so much to keep in mind as beginner potters! We were so happy to return to the studios and continue learning and creating, throwing clay and patiently, methodically turning it into unique expressions of ourselves. Once our dishes have fully dried, Gardiner potters will fire our clay creations and have them ready for Hawthorn to pick up later this month. We can’t wait to see them!
