Week Three, Fall 2024

This week I wanted to be more productive in terms of my own practice but because of Jesse Albrecht's visit I was a little more consumed with making connections and learning. Initially, I wasn't sure what I was going to get much out of his visit because visually I didn't see similarities in his work and mine. I also can get hesitant around veterans, I have a lot of vets and active military in my family, most experiences and interactions I've had with people who have served are in a negative tone. I have a great deal of respect for those who sacrificed so much but there tends to always be polarizing and harmful behavior associated with my interactions with vets that is difficult for me to accept. (not to make their experience about me but when you start using your past trauma as an excuse to justify harmful behavior on others…) Hearing Jesse talk was really refreshing. I really appreciated his honesty when talking about the struggles he faced when he reintegrated into civilian life. I don't think that blatant vulnerability spoken to a group of students about the veteran experience is often done. I’ve never experienced it. As he demoed I wrote down a few quotes that I resonated with: 

“Making art is not healing to me is a basic fucking human need.” 

“I’m not beautiful so I can’t make beautiful work.” 

“I can’t help but try my hardest.” 

“...negative momentum by dwelling in negative shit.” 

I wish I had more time to talk to him; we briefly had short and broken conversations in between things about clay, bronze casting, organizing a union, and just generally keeping up the good work and fighting the good fight. I felt like he would have more advice for me on how to navigate the foundry world and he mentioned that his father was the president of a union so at the very least it would have been nice to hear more supportive talk around those areas I’m passionate about and fighting to make better. 

Other than the Jesse visit, I made my damp boxes, had some “I'm too busy” dread, and squeezed in some glazing of worms.