Skyline not only offers many art classes but artists as well. One of those artists is Ty Cox, and he has spent many hours building his skills of doing ceramics.
When asked why he likes doing ceramics, he said he thinks it is important to express yourself. He said, “I was never that good at drawing, and now I have a talent that I can use to express myself and that I feel like I’m good at. I also like the community of being in the studio, because you get to meet other artists, and you get to interact and collaborate with other people.”
His favorite thing to do in ceramics are tea bowls, which are used in Japanese tea ceremonies. They originated a very long time ago in Japan. Cox said, “It’s a very interesting art form, because it is very specific in the constraints you need to use and how it needs to function in the tea ceremony, so you are able to express yourself within those restrictions. I think that, because you have those restrictions, it gives you a really interesting way to express things once you are familiar with the language, which is the tea ceremony basically.”
Cox also likes making bottles which are like vases. He explained, “I like the process of doing those because throwing it is very satisfying when you get to the top, and then you close it all up.”
Ceramics is a very different kind of art than others like drawing and painting. “You won’t be able to express your vision through clay in the same way you can express your vision through painting. Clay is a medium that you have to fight with a little bit more compared to 2D art, so it is a bigger learning curve to get into. I think it’s a really fulfilling thing once you finally learn how to do it, because it’s a lot of beautiful expressions with how you’re doing it within a functional object,” Cox said.
Cox has come really far, but he did not get there in a couple months, and he explains how that pattern is something you should expect when getting into art. He said, “Understand that for maybe the first year into it you are not going to be that good, because it takes a significant amount of time to get over the learning curve. I would say that if it is something that you think you enjoy, then you’re going to need to stick to it for a long time. You are not going to be good for a while, and that’s okay. The bad stuff you make is still beautiful. Don’t give up.”
