Helping Students Find Their Way With Clay | Adam Meistrell | Episode 935

Adam Meistrell | Episode 935

Adam Meistrell was born and raised in Naples, Florida. Adam’s first memories are of making art and traveling. After graduating from Penn State, Adam spent a few years seeking out adventure: driving to Alaska, jumping off cliffs in Italy, and surfing in Costa Rica. Adam earned his MFA from The Louisiana State University.

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Is there a difference between confidence and skill?

I think they’re hand in hand. The more skill you gain the more confidence you have. You just have to have enough confidence to overcome that inertia to start trying the skill.

Do you have a different teaching approach to be able to develop either one of those? To get the student to be more skilled or be more confident? Do you have approaches for those?

I think that comes from initial low entry point projects, where I get to evaluate students skills and abilities initially and then work with them individually to build their skills where they are needed.

How do you avoid having favorites?

Avoid having favorites? Well, I think people will joke with their kids, if their kid asks them who their favorite is they will say, You are my favorite right now. Whoever is asking the question, that’s fine. If your sibling asks the question, they are also my favorite. I think it’s always a challenge because you are always excited about something and you can always find something you are excited about. There do tend to be some students that have more times of excitement but there is always something to find that you are excited about with each student.

Do you find yourself having to make room for a chaotic or disrupted homelife?

Yes. There is always an understanding of there is life beyond the four walls of my classroom. And that can effect your motivation for today, I try to build that in to the length of my lessons and my overall projects and work with the students. I think it’s also time to give them the responsibility that they are to speak with me about what they need and we can have a conversation about moving forward together. Rather than me iron fisting saying, This is what it has to be and there’s no exceptions. So, I would rather it be a conversation.

I’m curious about that, it is a class and there is a grade that comes with it. So how do you keep a student motivated to get the job done but also to instill a love for the project?

I would say that is the million dollar question. There’s lots of challenges right now with kids addicted to social media and just not excited about your class or it may not be their first love. So there’s a variety of reasons that a student wouldn’t’ be excited about the initial project or anything. I think it’s just a lot of again, the communication, the showing the student that they are valuable and noticing them, talking with them, being willing to go to speak with them individually. That seems to go a long way.

When you are making what really gets you excited?

I think it’s discovery. If you look back at my work there’s similarities. Hopefully you can tell it’s all made by me, but it’s not all the same. You know, I try to get in there and discover something new or change something, adjust something, learn, discover. You know there’s a familiarity of the material and a familiarity of the some of the processes but how do I combine them to make something new for each time? How do I get excited about the studio?