- The arts can play a variety of roles in our contemporary society.

I've always contested personally as an educator that the arts should be at the forefront of educational reform.

But it also can be a wonderful tool and a forum for other aspects of our community than strictly mental health, and just healthy living.

So the broader we can get the arts into the hands and into the lives of people, then the more enriching it will be for them.

(gentle music) There's many ways to work with clay, just strictly with the hands, and certainly on the potter's wheel.

And I enjoy the aspects of building with clay from slabs or sheets of clay, and I roll them out with a rolling pin, or in this case, a slab roller.

(indistinct) (plastic crinkling) (gentle music) I want to get to the point of building the fun part rather than just the physical part of preparing the clay, so I want it into slab or like a sheet of clay, so I'm gonna roll it.

It would take the rolling pin a lot more time and a lot more effort.

Since I do a lot of it, I have invested in a slab roller, almost like a printing machine that will roll the clay out for me.

Now that I have the clay rolled out, flipped one time, and on the cloth, I can check the thickness.

If it's still too thick, I can thin it out a little bit now much easier with the rolling pin by rolling out in each direction and thinning it to the thickness that I want.

(gentle music) Now I have it ready to design.

I want to build a piece of pottery that has some height to it that allows me to treat it like almost a piece of sculpture.

So this now is a canvas or a board or paper.

So now I'm going to design on it.

The very nature of making art is a soothing, comforting, enriching, and uplifting kind of experience, and that aspect is good for anyone going through any problem.

But I firmly believe that the art has a role to play in contemporary society if we only would utilize it in that aspect and make it available.

But I'm visualizing this whole piece as I can or I may want to go deeper.

For example, you have found a block of wood just as it was, but now I wanna use it as a tool.

(gentle music continues) I flipped it, and those patterns that I use in the painting, the repetition of patterns I've seen in textile now become low relief states in clay that couldn't be achieved in any other way.

Now I need to cover it and flip it again, because I'm almost working in reverse.

I have found as an educator and as an artist and as a traveler around the world, is that we can use the arts, all the beauty and glory and the interconnectedness to help us understand the world we're living in and ourselves, and also particularly those who are different than ourselves.

I still have the cloth that I rolled it on that will allow me to begin to gradually move this piece around.

Now I want to attach this base to the body.

(gentle music continues) Once it's attached, I can cut off the excess and reuse the clay, and leave in this case, a little over somewhere to pull a part of that base into the wall, and that was present at that point of connection.

So the excess can be removed and saved, reused.

(gentle music continues) And where I've scored, I now will smooth it, mend it.

(tool tapping) (gentle music continues) So when I'm finished, I want it to look like that's one piece of clay.

I have a tool, in this case, what we call a rubber kidney that's thin and flexible that will allow me to hide that seam or that incision, but where the stitches were that put it together.

I can bring in the piece that was made yesterday, and allowed to stiffen overnight, and covered that is now stiff enough to be able to receive the next stage of work.

The art for me, music, dance, drama, spoken word, are the element that helped me see not only who I am and my history and culture, but by also looking at this, I learned to appreciate and value even those who are different than myself through art.

Continuing to find the process and work creatively even right up to the last point.

At one time, I'll refine it as far as I want, but with this piece, I'll cover it and go back in, and sort of make sure all the slips are there.

Then I'm gonna let it dry, and once it's in the bisque firing, comes out of the bisque firing, I'll cover the bottom with a wax, and then I'll get the glaze, 'cause this is glass, and cover it with the color.

And once I put the glaze, I put it back in the kiln, and that glaze turns to glass in the heat, and then it'll be a finished piece.

It's been a joy over the years to see how art has played a role in the lives of individuals, not only those who want to be artists, but I hear often from individuals who are in other fields, from science to technology, who found a way of utilizing art to enrich and enhance their existence, and that's good.

And to me, that's as good as seeing a piece of art in an exhibit is to know that it helps to enrich their life.