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Central America Weekly Article
The Survivor
Ceramic Workshop in Central America: The Rainforest and the Volcanoes
Published on Aug 31st in the Tico Times
Don’t
forget to visit the Art Program learn about
these great course
Published
on Aug 31st in the Tico Times
By
Tien-Shun Lee
The first day
art students Sarah Dahlberg and Lisa Glogower began working on a
class project to make a piece of "ecological art with spiritual
dimensions," they walked out of their project site completely covered
with clay.
Dahlberg and
Glowgower are two out of eight students enrolled in the Mixed Media
in the Rainforest course at La Suerte biological research station.
"This is an
art and ecology class where we use all natural materials and we
think of being sensitive to the site," says course instructor Debbie
Matthew. "The art is inspired by biological ecology, deep ecology
where there is a spiritual connection, and social ecology."
While students
in the primate behavior and ecology courses spend time conducting
experiments in the rainforest to study animals and plants, students
in Matthew's art class spend time discovering natural art studios
in the rainforest, and "bonding" with those sites.
"There was energy
and there was light dancing across the stream here," says Glogower
of her project site. "It was never boring and rarely ever quiet
the feeling we got was kind of like the feeling when you meet people
and you know that you're going to get along well."
To help students
become sensitized to their environment, Matthews tells students
to write stream-of-consciousness in their journals about their surroundings,
paying attention to what they see, hear and smell, and their feelings
of comfort or discomfort. She also has students focus on textures
and patterns in the rainforest, and tells them to think about reproducing
or using these patterns when constructing their art pieces.
Students construct
their art pieces in an enclosed studio as well as in the natural
surroundings of the rain forest. The final product is an "installation"
work, inseparable from its natural environment. Like its surroundings,
it changes with time and is biodegradable.
"It's fun because
we get to pick up anything off the floor and say, "hey we can use
this for something," said Carrie Watterworth, a recent college graduate
who majored in art.
One of the students'
favorite materials is rattan, a stretchy vine that can be tied,
braided and weaved like rope or string. Other natural art materials
include seed pods, which curl up when dried and stretch out when
wet, hibiscus plants, which can be boiled to make a blue-grey dye,
and chote, a seed which can be mashed up to form a red powder.
For their "deep
ecology" project, students spent four to six hours a day discovering
and exploring their site, and thinking of ways to present it to
an audience in a meaningful way.
"Most of our
inspiration came from just being at the site for long periods of
time and seeing what could happen," says Ephraim Peniston, who presented
his site with his partner Chad Plunket by pouring bags of red clay
into the river. The flow of water was punctuated by aesthetic constructions
of circles, pyramids and curved lines of stones.
Plunket further
connected with his site by having Matthews bury him in the sand
after lunch one day.
"I don't want
to be a separate entity anymore," he said. "I don't want to walk
on the land anymore, I want to be the land."
Matthews encourages
her art students to mix with the science students at La Suerte.
Some mornings, her students go out on walks with bird or primate
watchers. Other times, science students are invited to watch art
students present their projects.
"It's a very
interesting mix, us with the scientists," said Meg Glasser, as she
pointed out floating bamboo gates which were left over from her
second art project. "We come from very different views. We're always
looking and hearing and noticing how the environment affects our
five senses, rather than thinking about how much we know about these
specimen."
According to
Matthews, mixing art with ecology and nature is a growing discipline
which encourages viewers to question and gain a deeper understanding
of their surroundings.
In her course
at La Suerte as well as in her classes at the University of Wyoming
in the United States, Matthews encourages her students to think
of art as more than commodities.
"There is a
strong history of disposable art, with no waste," she says. "The
art goes back into nature."
The course has
helped many of the students focus on what type of art they want
to produce in the future.
"I want to integrate
my art into the community," said Watterworth. "This experience is
one of the most awesome experiences I've had in art."
Art courses
are offered only in the summer months and cost $1,500, transfers,
food and lodging included.
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Central
America Weekly Article
By Tien-Shun Lee
By the time
lunch is ready, many students at La Suerte biological field station
are ready for a nap. Some awoke at 4 a.m. to the calls of howler
monkeys. Others woke up to census green poison dart frogs. All are
working on field projects in the tropical rainforest, following
the activities of animals in the wild.
Students present
their data to classmates and faculty at the end of their month-long
field course. This year, about ten college-level courses are being
offered at La Suerte, the research field station located about half
an hour from Cariari. The courses attract students from the United
States and around the world to do hands-on primary field research
in the station's 700 acres of primary and secondary forests, swamps,
marshes and pastures.
Sarah Ballard,
Matt Klein and Nate Elgart, three twenty-year-olds enrolled in Kim
Dingess's field course "Primate Behavior and Ecology", talk about
their research project over plates of lasagna and rice.
"This is probably
the best day yet," says Klein. "Usually we have to wait an hour
for the monkeys to come out. This time we only waited ten minutes."
Klein and his
two partners are studying color preferences among Cebus capucinus
(capuchin) monkeys. In order to test the monkeys' preferences, they
dye three groups of peeled bananas different colors - red, green
and yellow. They then place the bananas at two feeding stations,
and wait behind a screen made of garbage bags for the monkeys to
come out.
Today, the capuchin
monkeys came crashing through the trees at 11:07, ten minutes after
the bananas were set out at the feeding stations. They stayed around
the area for about an hour, picking up one banana after another
from the feeding station, with no apparent preference for color.
"It doesn't
seem like any time at all - you're so busy watching them and it's
so interesting," says Ballard.
Ballard and
her partners came up with the idea to study color preferences of
the capuchins after reading a paper written by Paul Garber, a monkey
researcher at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Garber
also set up feeding stations in the La Suerte forest, and tested
monkeys to see if they could learn the difference between real bananas,
plastic bananas and a yellow block.
"They're pretty
intelligent," says Klein. "Relative to body size, they have the
same size brain as chimpanzees."
Capuchins are
probably smarter than howler monkeys, the students say, because
they actively forage for food instead of just eating leaves. "The
howlers just live in like a large salad bowl," says Klein. Compared
to howlers, which spend 65% of their time resting, the capuchins
move around a lot more, swinging from tree to tree and peeling away
bark to find insects.
After lunch,
a few groups go into the rainforest to collect data on howler monkeys,
which have been spotted earlier in the day lurking by the La Suerte
river.
One group brings
a stop watch and binoculars so that they can record what one "focus"
monkey is doing after every 30 seconds.
Another group
brings along a tape recorder so that they can play a recording of
howler monkey calls to see how the monkeys respond. For this group,
it is the second time during the day that they are visiting the
monkeys. The first time, they located the monkeys by their early
morning wake-up call at a little past four in the morning.
Tom Herr, a
master's student at the State University of New York at Buffalo,
goes out to check on his green and black poison dart frogs (Dendrobates
auratos). So far, he has identified 78 different poison dart frogs
within a 48m by 35m plot of forest. Each frog has a different pattern
of markings on its back, which Herr has sketched in to his notebook.
Herr spends
so much time with his frogs, he can often name them by sight.
"Oh yeah, that's
number 61," he says with confidence after spotting a large male
frog lurking next to a tree trunk.
One day he spent
eight hours videotaping a pair of mating frogs as they copulated
and searched for an appropriate site to lay eggs.
"Sometimes is
gets boring for sure, but when the interesting stuff comes, it pays
off," he says.
Days seem to
go on forever at La Suerte. Besides going into the rain forest to
collect data on their research specimens, students also have lectures
at night, and planned social activities, such as salsa dance classes.
In the little free time they have left, they write letters, study
notes, visit the local grocery store, and chat amongst themselves
in the cabinas, where four or five people share rooms with bunk-beds.
"You get used
to things out here, like the mosquitoes being all over you and the
heat," says Ballard. "It makes you tougher." Some students complain
that a month is too long to be living on a rainforest reserve.
"This jungle
is kicking my butt," said one student as he limped along with a
bad foot that had been attacked by carpenter ants.
Most are satisfied
with their intense rainforest experience and would consider continuing
with field biology. Elgart, one of the students working with capuchin
monkeys, had no doubts about his future.
"This is what
I want to do," he said. "That's why I'm here."
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The
Survivor
Daniel
K. Sokol, Green College
Still unpacking
my backpack, a semi-transparent scorpion, claws open and tail poised,
creeps under my cabin door and scuttles nonchalantly towards me.
I scream for Jeff who arrives in a hurry from the adjacent room.
An expletive. He pops back into his cabin and promptly returns with
a gigantic Spanish textbook. Eyeing the scorpion's every move, he
gently approaches it, holds the hefty volume directly above it,
and lets go. The book crashes onto the floor with a thunderous thump.
He missed. Following a few minutes of chasing, he eventually succeeds
in slaying the beast with a shoe. If this intrepid feat earned him
the nickname 'Scorps', it reflected poorly on me. I was soon stuck
with the unenviable title of 'whuss of La Suerte'.
When I told
my younger brother by e-mail of my imminent departure to the rainforests
of Costa Rica, the title of his reply was not comforting: 'You'll
never survive!!!!!!!!!!'. But of course I did. I am not the adventurous
type, and suffer from a near-pathological fear of insects, as illustrated
by my girlish shriek at the sight of the scorpion. A few weeks after
the completion of my Finals, I signed up for a four-week course
in Tropical Rainforest Biology at 'La Suerte', a biological field
station encompassing 700 acres of forest in northeastern Costa Rica,
and which offers winter and summer courses in a variety of disciplines.
There were around 35 students, nearly all American and aged between
20 and 22. This American domination added extra dimensions to the
course. Linguistic obviously, as they regarded my accent as the
height of comme il faut, and as I assimilated their colourful phrases
with evident glee: righteous, word, tight, to be 'down' (all words
indicating approbation) and, of course, the compulsory inclusion
of 'dude' in every utterance. Cultural also; in particular their
intensely liberal attitude to everything. For instance, I once made
the error of expressing my disapproval of women's boxing and, in
the space of a sentence, I became Satan himself. These differences
and the ensuing arguments were a constant source of entertainment.
The daily lecture,
from 10h30 to 12h00, took place in hammocks (I suggest Oxford adopts
this fine idea) and was given by Professor Vern Bingman, a reputed
American neuroscientist, fervent admirer of Britney Spears and quite
possibly the world's most deplorable dancer. In addition to these
informal naps, sorry, lectures, the students gave regular presentations
on some aspect of rainforest biology. One of my more memorable ones
was on the Jesus Christ Lizard, so called because of its spectacular
ability to run on water. Although unanimously considered entertaining,
I failed to answer a single of the many questions asked afterwards.
I thought this amusing, but Bingman seemed unimpressed by my apparent
ignorance. In fact, besides from a rough annotated sketch of the
lizard on a torn piece of A4 paper (later reproduced by the group
on my birthday card), the only information I provided was the rather
spectacular ability of this metre-long lizard to actually run on
water.
The rest of
the day was mostly spent in the forest itself, although there was
always time left for a spot of horse riding, kayaking, table-football
(in which I managed to regain an ounce of pride) and the occasional
game of cards. We were usually woken up by 5am, either by the pitter-patter
of the rain on the cabin roofs or the loud cries of the howler monkeys
waking up in the neighboring trees. Four or five hours a day were
spent meandering through the forests in search of wildlife, and
examining the many species of flora and fauna found there. I relied
on others to find them, as I was permanently looking at my feet,
making sure not to tread on a discretely coiled-up, potentially
lethal, pit-viper. The snakes were remarkably camouflaged and it
would often be the fifth or sixth person down the line who would
spot the snake, literally inches away from everyone's footprints.
When found, one of these yellow 'caution' tapes, lined with skulls
reminding me of a danse macabre, was put up on a nearby tree warning
others of the proximity of this embodiment of death. We also saw
sloth, a bat cave formed in the hollow of a fallen tree (not vampire
bats, Bingman assured us...well, me), three species of monkey, tarantulas,
caimans, hundreds of colorful birds and butterflies, and thousands
of bromeliads, heliconias and other plant species.
And let us not
forget our beloved mosquitoes and cockroaches. The latter are indeed
harmless, but are nonetheless traumatizing. One evening, my neighbor
Pat came into my cabin and asked me to inspect his latest discovery.
Once outside, he pointed his flashlight at the bottom of a large
box. Taking up half of it, was the most monstrous cockroach I have
ever seen; picture a Harvey's ciabatta and mentally transform it
into a cockroach. As a fellow student commented, no less than a
leash would be needed to control that mammoth! I very nearly vomited.
But, mosquitoes and cockroaches apart, the richness and diversity
of the ecosystem, the visual intensity of the surroundings and this
unique, sumptuous sound that emanates from all corners of the forest,
make the walks an incredible experience.
By the end of
the course, having seen and lived in the company of dozens of vipers
and scorpions, bucketfuls of spiders, miles of cockroaches, trees
full of blood-sucking, disease-causing bats (despite Bingman's repeated
claims, I am absolutely convinced they were vampire bats!) and myriad
other species risen from the depths of hell itself, I am proud to
say that I am still a downright wimp. A wimp, however, who has lived
through a fabulous adventure, discovered the richness of an unsullied
natural environment, and who returns to the dreaming spires dreaming
a little more than he did before.
Published
in Cherwell newspaper, Friday 19th October, Vol. 231, No 3.
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Alumni
Ceramic
Workshop in Central America: The Rainforest and the Volcanoes This past summer,
my wife, three students and I traveled to Costa Rica and Nicaragua
for a month-long studio arts course. I coordinated a class, Environmental
and Cultural Workshop in Art, that involved the creation of work
based on the abundant flora and fauna of the Costa Rican rainforest
and the overwhelming beauty and mystery of the island of Ometepe
in Lake Nicaragua. We also developed our art work through the study
of Pre-Columbian culture, as well as the art and society of present
day Central America. The environment was sometimes challenging,
but always inspirational. |
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History
Of The Two Stations:
The
workshop was part of the summer class schedule offered
through the La Suerte and Ometepe Field Stations which
are owned and operated by the Molina family. The Molina's
involvement in the development of these two stations
begins with a turbulent history that has evolved into
a successful personal, ecological, and educational venture.
The
story begins in Esteli, Nicaragua where the Molina patriarch,
Rene Molina, and his family had several successful enterprises.
In the late 1960's,
Cuban
business entrepreneurs went to Nicaragua looking for
a place to grow tobacco for the manufacturing of cigars.
They chose land close to the Honduran border owned by
the Molinas, and asked then Nicaraguan leader, Anastasio
Samoza, to help them contact the owner of the property.
Rene Molina gladly leased the land, and through this
experience, developed a good relationship with Somoza.
Eventually, he became a congressman from Esteli.
As
the political climate changed in Nicaragua, and the
Sandinistas rose to power, the family's ties to Somoza
had strong consequences. "Things started to get ugly
in Nicaragua, and in 1978, our house in Esteli was burnt
down by a mob (Turbas)," according to Alvaro Molina,
one of the sons and the Station Administrator. "The
local priest (the famous Padre Julio) tipped off the
family, and we evacuated my younger brothers and sisters
to Jalapa, where my dad had the Tobacco farm with an
airstrip. A few days later, we left for Managua, and
then we flew the entire family to Miami. We asked for
political asylum, and a few years later we got it. By
1990, most of us were American Citizens."
In
the early 1980's, an uncle moved to Costa Rica and started
a cattle ranch. Rene Molina also decided to begin his
own cattle operation. The Molinas rented, and then bought
Finca La Suerte (Lucky Farm) in 1987. Alvaro Molina
began vacationing at his father's ranch, and became
interested in the possibility of using the rainforest
as an educational tool. After a few failed attempts
at recruiting students, Alvaro contacted Dr. Paul Garber,
a Primatologist from the University of Illinois. After
a visit to the station, Dr. Garber taught the first
official class at La Suerte in Primate Behavior and
Ecology.
The
station in Ometepe, Nicaragua, came into being as a
result of an optional ten day trip with students from
La Suerte. Alvaro Molina went with them as a guide,
and fell in love with the beautiful island.
"This
was my first time ever on this island, and I got a guide
to hike the Madera Volcano. When I got back, contacted
Dr. Garber and told him that I had found paradise with
lots of monkeys and asked him if he was interested in
teaching there." After visiting Ometepe, Dr. Garber
was enthralled with the wild monkey population, and
offered to teach a class. The Molina family set out
to find an area close to the Madera volcano. Because
a new government was in Nicaragua, Rene Molina was free
to travel again in the country, and had also become
the Minister of Tourism. According to Renee Lucia Molina
(note the extra "e" in the name), one of the Molina
daughters and the station's Art and Administrator, "He
started to claim land that had been confiscated by the
Sandinistas. This land was occupied by government agencies,
pinateros (land squatters supported by the sandinistas)
or private agencies. The government gave him bonds for
the land that was confiscated back in 1979 and that
is how he was able to purchase the site of Ometepe BFS."
They started construction on he new station in March
of 1997 and finished on December 27th.
The
development of arts courses can be attributed to Renee
Molina, who has a Masters Degree in Architecture, and
a strong visual arts background. As she explained: "Alvaro
started bringing in mostly biology students to the station.
I
realized how unfair it was that only biology students
had the wonderful opportunity to visit the rainforest
and study it. I thought artists would love to come here
and experience its splendor and beauty as well. The
rain forest needs promotion in its fight for conservation,
why not allow art to become a voice?"
Renee
designed several courses, including Mixed Media in the
Rain Forest, which drew a larger and more diverse group
of students eager to use the natural materials at hand.
The latest addition in the arts program, Dance Choreography
in the Rain Forest, offers students the opportunity
to create in a living studio with a full sensory experience
surrounding them. |
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La Suerte
Our experience
began with a two- week stay in a rainforest in northeastern Costa
Rica. We stayed in rustic cabins along the Rio La Suerte (Lucky
River) and experienced an overwhelming presence of nature all around
us. Besides the lush, dense greenery, there were a multitude of
insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Every morning
we would awake to the calls of howler monkeys, and would occasionally
see a Toucan fly by as we headed for breakfast.
Our first projects
involved getting acclimated to our new surroundings. We ventured
into the rainforest with our drawing pads, covered head-to-toe in
mosquito repellent. We saw green poison dart frogs as we entered
under the canopy. As the forest grew thicker, we found strawberry
poison dart frogs; Smaller creatures with bright red and blue markings.
We were able to draw in the environment despite the fact that our
paper was usually wet in the damp environment. Some students took
to using watercolors on the pre-moistened surface.
One of our drawing
projects involved the dance class. We hiked out to a clearing and
drew expressionist, gesture based works as they danced among the
twisted roots of a huge tree. As we worked, a group of howler monkeys
journeyed across the canopy, moving effortlessly from tree to tree.
These drawings
became studies for a later mural project based on our impressions
of the environment. My group, students from other classes, and several
local people from the neighboring town of Primavera combined stylized
images of the wildlife and jungle into a large mural that covered
one whole side of our studio. We began the work by collecting natural
pigments from the rainforest and the station. Our goal was to only
use materials that came from the subject we depicted and to not
use binders so the work would eventually return to the earth. We
used boiled hibiscus flowers for blue, canario flowers for yellow,
moss for green, poke berries for purple, coal and wood ash for black
and white, and a variety of local clays for reds, tans, and browns.
The end result was a swirling myriad of shapes that moved around
and through each other, representing the dynamic energy of the rainforest
and its inhabitants.
As we drew and
painted, we continually worked on small ceramic sculptures and vessels
using different slips for surface color and design. Our studio was
very simple, with two tables and a kick wheel based on a Nicaraguan
design that positions the thrower at a slant with the wheel-head
off to the left-hand side of his/her body. The studio was also a
little dark, so we occasionally worked outside on folding tables.
As we sculpted, we would be visited twice a day by a group of white-face
capuchin monkeys and one lone spider monkey.
One of the drawbacks
to our surroundings was that the rainforest is continually wet,
and our pieces refused to dry. We ended up having to load a kiln
full of damp ware, and lost a couple of pieces to cracking and steam-explosion.
Our wood-fired
kiln was based on a Nicaraguan bread-oven design that is intended
for low-fire ware. The entire structure, starting from the bottom,
is built over a shallow pit (approx. 30" in circumference). Then,
a small (approx. 16" high) dome of brick and refactory cement is
built over the pit with a large hole (approx. 10"in circumference)
at its crown and the side facing the stoke-hole. A double row of
red brick is built up (approx. 60" in circumference) around this
dome, allowing for an opening in the front for loading/unloading,
and an opening at the base to push in coals. Clay tiles are laid
to make up the floor, then an inner dome is built (a brickâs length
in). The gap between the walls is packed with dirt or clay for insulation,
and the structure is sealed with refractory cement. More detailed
plans for these kilns/ovens can be found at pyromas@cam.org.
We began the
firing with the door partially unbricked. A small fire was built
at the entrance to the stoke-hole. When the wood became glowing
coals, we piled more wood on top. Slowly, we began pushing the coals
into the innermost dome and eventually built up a bed that was hot
enough to ignite wood instantly
as it was tossed
in. My students and I cut up planks of wood from an old demolished
shed with machetes to feed the fire. As we worked, struggling to
split the boards, two women from Primavera watched me with amusement.
One of them took my machete, and in two strokes, split the wood
easily. The firing took twelve hours in all, and the work was fired
to a low-bisque consistency.
At the end of
our stay at La Suerte, we had suffered mosquito bites, lived with
a myriad of exotic bugs, and walked carefully about at night looking
for poisonous snakes. We also came away with a collection of great
work and experiences-- and a variety of artistic inspirations we
could take back with us.
Ometepe:
After the rainforest,
my students and I were ready to create in a new environment. The
next section of our class was held on Ometepe, a 276 square kilometer
island that is home to two volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.
Ometepe(a Nahuatl
word that means "land of two volcanoes") is the largest Volcanic
island in the world in a fresh-water lake. The two volcanoes that
dominate its vista, Madera and Concepci—n, rise straight up over
a thousand feet. The population of over 30,000 people are mostly
decedents of the Niquirano Indians that regarded the island as a
holy place. Petroglyphs can be found all over the island, and more
are discovered every year. There are also unique examples of stone
statuary and burial urns that can be studied up close without having
to look through a glass case.
The Ometepe
station felt somewhat like a resort. After a short boat ride across
the lake, we walked out onto a private pier and walked up to our
cabins. The red-tile roofed buildings are nestled under the huge
presence of the inactive volcano, Madera, while on the other side
you could look out across the lake that looked more like an ocean.
Our studio was simply a table set up under the thatched communal
space where all classes are taught in the open air.
Our first project
involved designs based on petroglyphs. We went on a mountain bike
ride across the dirt roads through the small town of San Ramon.
Our guide, Rodolfo, took us on to a private property where dozens
of petroglyphs could be seen. We hunted them out on the half-submerged
rocks, and were told that during the winter (Nicaraguaâs winter
is our summer) half of the ancient marking were hidden under water.
One of my goals
while on Ometepe was to meet and work with some local potters. My
group, and several other students, arranged a trip to Pul, a small
community on the Concepci—n side of the island. We traveled by truck
on the one road that circles the island, dodging potholes and the
loose livestock and other domesticated animals that wandered freely
throughout the island. We passed through many of the small, privately
owned farms that are the livelihood of the inhabitants.
Our hour-long
trip brought us to Altagracia, one of the two most important towns
on the island. Right off of the town square, surounding a Catholic
church, was one of the most impressive examples of Pre-Columbian
statuary Iâve ever seen. Left out in the elements, these life-sized
idols demonstrate the connection of Spanish and Indian ancestry
as "pagan" and Christian symbols inhabit the most revered site in
town.
From town, it
was a two kilometer walk to the community of Pul. We visited the
few remaining potters, and spent the day with them talking and learning
about their work. Two years earlier, there had been a thriving community
of potters in the area, but the ceramic trade didnât pay off for
them, and one by one they left the collective theyâd formed to pursue
farming full-time. One of the last hold-outs was Narciso Mena, his
wife, and his nephew. Though Narciso told me he rarely had time
to work in clay because of the necessity of feeding his family,
it was still a duty of his to preserve this dying art in his community.
His nephew, a young man with an amazing skill at hand-building stylized
figures, expressed the same melancholy view (Note this is translated
from Spanish): "I learned to work in clay from my mother. We used
to have a lot of potters here, but now, theyâve lost hope. Iâve
brought my work to Managua to sell it, but it costs money to take
the ferry, and I donât always sell what I bring over. Iâve tried
getting my friends to do work in clay, but they tell me Îwhatâs
the point? Your just working in mud. How can I make a living out
of this?â Iâll continue to work, but itâs very hard."
Narciso agreed
to give us a demonstration on the wheel. I watched with respect
as he centered and threw the black clay into a form on a wheel that
was shifting with every kick of the fly-wheel. He told me: "A gringo,
like you, taught me how to throw years ago. He then gave me the
main parts for the wheel so I could build my own. I kept at it,
and developed from what I knew." His work was eclectic and original.
Trying to find a marketable product, he moved from style to style.
From simple tourist ware with "Ometepe" written across the work,
to anthropomorphic figures rising strangely from shallow bowls,
Narcisoâs work held an unpretentious love of the medium that made
the pots fun, funky, and individual.
With only a
few days left on the island, we went to work on our final projects.
We made a stabilized adobe statue based on the ones weâd seen in
Altagracia. Making a mixture of clay we had dug, concrete, and coconut
fiber, we packed it into a wooden box form. After a couple of hours,
we removed the box and quickly went to work carving the form as
it cured. The final piece was placed in a prominent spot on a large
boulder in the stationâs center. We had also made a series of pots,
figures, ocarinas, and beads to be fired.
To fire the
work, we had to build our own kiln on the dock that jutted out into
the lake. We found a stack of home-made red brick on the property
and borrowed a few to make a very simple kiln. First, in a pre-dug
fire pit set out of the wind, we laid a flat bed of brick, then
brought up the sides into a crude box form. In the inside, we stacked
up a few bricks to make a shelf. The firing was done by laying wood
around the center shelf and feeding the fire slowly. After two hours,
we fed the fire more rapidly and let the coals grow up all around
the edge of the shelf. Then, we placed a sheet of corrugated tin
over the top, and let it soak overnight. The color of the clay going
in was a dirt brown, but the final firing color was a surprisingly
bright terra-cotta.
Coming back
to Ohio, I returned to my electric and gas kilns and Soldner mixer.
Pre-cleaned, bagged clay and electric wheels. The experience at
La Suerte and Ometepe revolves in my mind, edging me forward into
new work. I hope my students on the trip feel as I do; Itâs good
to get out and rattle the cage from outside.
For more information
on the program, location, or classes being offered contact info@lasuerte.org
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