Molding, shaping, painting, and spinning is the sound of Redhawks in ceramics class as students are molding clay to make surrealist teapots. Taking inspiration from surrealist artists from the 1920s, each student uses their imagination to mold an out-of-ordinary pot.
“They’re making teapots that are kind of more on the creative side,” ceramics art teacher Elise Reed said. “They’re taking an interesting object and turning that into a teapot or combining two things to make it a little more crazy, quirky, and more bizarre. So they will turn out differently than regular teapots.”
For sophomore Ophelia Grigoryan, that means combining several different animals to make a surrealist teapot.
“I’m making a bunny-looking pot,” Grigoryan said. “It has the body and head of a rabbit, but the spout and the handle are a snake shape, and then the feet of the pot are going to be chicken legs. So it’s going to look really crazy but it’s going to look fun.”
According to Reedy, deriving inspiration from other artists allows students to test out different styles and helps them to express themselves through their own art.
“I believe that looking at any sort of art history gives students some perspective on their own life,” Reedy said. “Looking back at other artworks and artists helps them gain inspiration for their own art and can help them decide how they want to say what they want to say with their art.”
Each student has different art styles they prefer and for some, the most challenging part can be figuring out how to incorporate their style into their teapot.
“The hard part about it is coming up with the idea because for me I can’t make things that look too creepy so I want to make sure it’s cute,” sophomore Serrinah Patel said.
Flexibility in the project permits students to think imaginatively.
“The best part about this project is that it really lets us be creative and use our imaginations,” Grigoryan said. “We can decide however we want to design it and it’s not a normal teapot so we really get to go outside of the box and use [our] imagination.”
