#tbt : Most people are surprised to hear I have a BFA in ceramics. College was a hard lesson in not listening to myself, and as a result clay is a pretty emotionally charged medium. I haven’t touched it since. Someday I’ll make peace with it, but 5 years ago, I made art with it. Halfway through art school, I had this irrational urge to drop out and work on a farm. The idea came from nowhere, really. I had never set foot on a farm, didn’t know any farmers. I just thought, “I think I’d like this.” I was wrong: I LOVED it. But, it did ruin school for me. After a summer of spending every day outside, I went back to the city to spend eternity ruled by clocks and calendars in a windowless basement with an ever-present layer of clay dust. I was totally miserable. Looking back, I’m surprised I even finished, let alone created this piece titled “Motherhood”. But I was motivated by something more than a degree. It was out in the fields that I first heard whisperings of “the other way to farm”. I spent the entirety of my senior year researching agribusiness, factory farms, slaughterhouse practices, migratory workers, Monsanto. I was SO pissed. Why weren’t we talking about this more? I think I was mostly upset by the fact that I was in my early twenties and only just hearing of it. Maybe it was naive of me, but when I pictured farms, they weren’t miles of corn or feedlots with hundreds of cattle up to their knees in shit. It was so wrong on so many levels... I just couldn’t stand it, so I made art about it. (I’m going to get all worked up and start ranting about now, so...) Let’s toss out that old saying “ignorance is bliss” and educate ourselves. Everything affects everything. Especially in a capitalist society, we vote with our lifestyle, with how we spend our money. And it’s about priorities. By knowing where our food comes from and how it was raised/grown we are investing in our own health, that of our families, communities and the future of food. Seriously though. #supportyourlocalfarm
