Handing a Fishing Pole Instead of A Fish | Sondra Elder | Episode 957

Sondra Elder | Episode 957

As a self-taught artist, Sondra was not able to truly devote time to her creative journey until after retiring from her life in the business world. Her journey has taken her to study with Spanish, Austrailian, English, and American ceramic artists to develop her skills. With her pottery, her chosen medium is porcelain because its strength and delicacy learn to live in harmony. It is her perfect canvas to display the beautiful zinc-silicate crystals that can only be created through normally destructive fire. These naturally occurring phenomena inspire her never-ending desire to artistically harness their capability on the backdrop of her forms – which equally exude both capability and femininity.

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Why is it important for you to share your knowledge?

I would say because when they are creating work they are going to be remembering who influenced that work and I love that I am going to be a part of that influence.

Do you feel like the journey for the student is more important than the destination?

I actually think it’s both. I don’t think they can be separated from each other. It’s not just the destination, although that is incredibly important because learning cristalline was important, but the journey that I took along the way was requited in order for me to get to that destination. So they are both important to me.

You had a great line that you would rather hand them a fishing pole rather than a fish. Why is that better than just giving them the fish?

I will take it to one thing specifically that I teach and that is centering, that is the hardest thing when you are starting. If I teach them how their body is supposed to work during centering then they are going to remember how their body is supposed to work during every other part of their throwing. So that’s handing them the pole, teaching them about their bodies and what their bodies are doing during throwing, that’s handing them the fishing pole, not just handing them the fish.

Do you ever find yourself not being able to answer some questions and do you find that a challenge or are you okay with it?

I find it’s an impetus for me thinking deeper to be honest with you . Because I don’t know that I don’t know the answer all the time, I am sure I don’t, but the point is, have I thought hard enough about what they are asking me. Instead of immediately saying, I don’t know. I want to think hard about what they are saying because maybe I do know or at least know how to guide them in the right direction.

How do you help people find their own voice instead of being another echo of Sondra?

I will go back to the body thing. When I am teaching it is almost always about body dynamics and everybody’s body dynamic is going to be a little bit different. But there are just some core things that if they know how their body connects with the clay to make the clay do what they want it to do, they don’t have to mimic a form that I have taught them. They can use what they have learned about their own bodies and how it connects to the clay. And this may be hard to understand but the body dynamic thing is real and I’ve seen it in my students.

The whole time we’ve been talking I have seen a dog jumping about ten feet into the air. I’m curious, what kind of dogs do you have?

I have a golden doodle and a labradoodle. My golden doodle, he looks like a black poodle, is what he looks like, but he’s the golden doodle and he’s 70 pounds, that’s Riley. And the labradoodle is 30 pounds and her name is Brady because I am from Massachusetts and the last time the Patriots won a Super Bowl I said I was going to name my next dog Brady, so her name is Brady.