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Abe & Eli Lowham | Episode 387
Abe & Eli Lowham are college students attending the University of Wyoming. Abe & Eli grew up in a small town called Lander, Wyoming. The brothers started throwing pottery in high school and have continued with their passion in their shared studio basement while skipping class. Abe is a freshman dual majoring in mechanical engineering and art. Eli is a senior majoring in speech pathology.
(Photos are mix of each brother)
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Do you think creativity is something you are born with or something that you develop?
Abe: That’s a tough question. I think probably both. It’s hard to say, but I definitely think you can improve your creativity. Even going through the art department here at the college over this last semester I definitely have learned a lot new things and have improved in a lot of ways. So I would say it definitely can be learned.
Why clay?
Eli: I think stemming back to high school it is kind of what caught my attention honestly. I took some drawing classes, I never took stained-glass or anything like that, but I really enjoyed pottery. In high school I generally threw vases too and my mom would go crazy saying, throw some bowls for me. Just something about pottery and throwing vases, I really enjoyed it. I find it meditating almost, when you are focusing on the clay and just throwing it, it feels really good.
How do find the balance with your studying and college life and doing clay?
Abe: I think it’s just day by day. Trying not to waste too much time doing things that aren’t as productive. Just really time management and day by day getting motivated to do what I need to do.
Eli: As a senior I feel like I have kind of figured out what exactly I need to do personally to be successful in college and if I know that it kind of helps with the pottery aspect because I know what I need to get done before I can be downstairs in the basement for a couple of hours throwing some pottery.
What does it take to be successful in college?
Abe: Just really working to keep our grades up and finding time to do the things we want to do such as pottery.
Eli: It’s definitely going to class. You start skipping class and then you don’t know what’s going on. So as long as you are going to class you are on the right track.
Is it more important to get the best grades or to just get by?
Abe: I think that depends, as long as you are working hard and doing what you need to do to be where you want to be. If you can get by without very much effort then you should definitely be working harder to do as well as you can.
Eli: I am not a straight A student or anything like that, but we do well and I think part of that is I don’t want my mom to threaten to shut down the studio. Gotta keep mom happy.
How much sleep are you getting for school? Are you guys staying up way late? Are you getting enough sleep?
Abe: A lot of nights we say up doing pottery or just hanging out getting other work done. It definitely depends on how busy our week is at school. Sometimes we get plenty of sleep and others times it’s staying up way too late.
Eli: I get eight hours of sleep a day at least.
What is the best thing about being away from home and the best thing about going home as a college student?
Abe: Going away from home,definitely just the freedom, being able to work on your own schedule. Then going back home, seeing our parents, seeing our little brother and good food, good meals are definitely a plus.
Eli: I’d say for Abe, ideally for him going home would be good meals. I swear he’s been eating my leftovers since he got here at the start of the semester. It is definitely the freedom, which is the easy go to answer but it’s true because you have to start working on time management and you are in charge of if you are going to be successful by what you choose to do or not, basically. It adds a bit of the aspect, if you want to do it, you have to do it yourself. And going home, seeing family feels awesome. Definitely my mom hooks us up with meals and spoils us when we go back to so it’s nice going back.
Book
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Contact
Instagram: @lowhamceramics