So I taught my new Intermediate Wheelthrowing class yesterday in the new wheelthrowing room at Lillstreet Art Center. I was stupified by the amount of natural light coming in through the windows!!! My studio has no window access so it was all new to me. It was kind of amazing… huge windows along the wall above the wheels… then I realized that I typically teach night classes… and that might be part of it too?!

Tonight kicks-off my return to teaching at Lillstreet Art Center!!!
They’ve re-opened and I’m so excited to see people back at the wheel, getting messy & sloppy, having fun in the clay!!! It’s been far too long… and it’s going to be great to have the Lillstreet Community coming back together again… even if it is with new rules, guidelines and a LOT of social-distancing. Yep, that’s going to be a new challenge for all of us!

SO EXCITED!!!… Summer Camp starts today!!!

After far too many months of quarantine, sheltering-in-place and e-learning… it’s so exciting that we’re ready to teach kids again!!! My camp this week is a Sculpture Camp… sadly no field trip to the Art Institute this year, but we’ll make up for it with a lot of art history, clay projects & amazing sculptures made by the kids!!! So exciting to be starting up again… with a LOT of proper precautions in place. Fewer camps, fewer campers, lots of new guidelines, more cleaning and a LOT of social distancing!!!

Looks like the new Wheelthrowing Classroom is all ready to go… which is great because Lillstreet Art Center officially re-opens tomorrow with a lot of improvements & remodeling done for better social distancing to keep all of the students & teachers safe… and we’re all VERY eager to get back to making muddy messes on the wheels!!!

So if a handbuilding classroom suddenly gets a couple pottery wheels… is it still called a HANDBUILDING room?! More changes happening at Lillstreet as we prepare for more social-distancing when we re-open soon!

So good to see all of these hand sanitizer dispensers “popping up” in every classroom at Lillstreet Art Center as we prepare to re-open in a couple weeks!!! So excited to go back, to start teaching again, to see everyone again… and to see that we’re going to be following all of the guidelines to keep everyone safe!!!

And here’s a view of the “original” Wheel C classroom… now spaced out with “alternating” wheels for “social-distancing” when we get back to pottery classes at Lillstreet. It’s so weird to see so few wheels in there… I’m accustomed to teaching in there with eighteen wheels all going at the same time!!! It’s going to take some getting used to this… and I hope we make it back to the full eighteen wheels & eighteen students some time real soon?!

Things are coming along nicely in the new Wheelthrowing B classroom at Lillstreet. With some special “socially-distant-bench-dividers” between the wheels, lots of new shelving… and quite possibly the cleanest & tightest canvased tabletops ever!!!

Looking forward to seeing students back at Lillstreet when we finally get to open again… the “new” Summer Session is currently scheduled to begin July 6th!!!

So we just got done with a ZOOM Meeting with several of the ceramics teachers at Lillstreet Art Center. Talking about the new changes, the new procedures, the new “normal” and how we’re all working together to make the Summer Session of classes come together safely as Lillstreet prepares to open to the public in early July. It was very informative, and great to see everyone again… even if only on my laptop for now!

But what did I learn from ZOOM?… that apparently it’s a LOT easier for everyone to share their cat at the end than it was for me to share my OREO’s?!!!

Dramatic sunset effects drifting above Lillstreet… sometimes it pays off to look away… and to see what’s behind you even when a stunning sunset is in front of you!