Enjoy a free workshop or live demo with a Torpedo Factory Art Center artist at the Waterfront entrance of the Art Center. There will be a different project every third Saturday of the month from April – September, 1 – 3pm.
Join us for sunshine, artmaking, and fun!
Throwing Pottery with Julia O’Bryan
Julia O’Bryan is the Spring Post-Grad Resident (Studio 319) and a graduate in Studio Art from Southwestern University in Georgetown Texas. She began throwing pottery when she was sixteen and it quickly became her passion. Her work stems from her childhood growing up in southwest Missouri as well as from her struggle with an aggressive auto-immune disease.
Julia will demonstrate how to throw the base forms of mugs and bowls with porcelain. She will show different steps used in throwing different vessels on the pottery wheel from start to finish, including centering the clay, pulling walls, and finishing.
Artist Statement:
“The time we are given is an elusive commodity. The passage of time is the one thing we all have in common and yet, not many of us stop to contemplate. We cannot change it. We all go through the same days, hours, and minutes, and yet we all spend them differently. We define our own time by the memories we create and our experiences. You are the only person that can decide how to use the time you are given and whether it has been a time well spent. My work is inspired by my struggle with an autoimmune disease that has greatly altered my view on time and the way that I spend the time I have. Much like the coral I use as a metaphor to represent the destruction throughout my lungs, as it is slowly being choked by the toxins around it as it continues to fight for survival in its environment, I am trying to survive when the odds are stacked against me. I hope that my work gives the sense of a beautiful life well lived. I hope that my work gives joy, hope, and support to others in a similar position.”
