With pieces ranging from cakes to vases to skulls, Advanced Ceramics students explored themes of personal significance through their artwork, including the transition from childhood to adulthood, culture, identity and connections to nature.  

Arts teacher Olivia Moon teaches eighth grade ceramics and upper school classes in intro, intermediate, advanced and Advanced Study Ceramics. According to Moon, the Advanced Ceramics class typically has lessons plans and is more structured, while students in Advanced Study Ceramics participate in an independent study, where they write and follow a project proposal the whole year based an overarching theme or question they are passionate about.

Moon said she started to incorporate the independent aspect of the advanced study curriculum into the Advanced Ceramics class because most students go on to take it. Many Advanced Ceramics students create a project proposal they follow second semester and can continue in the advanced study class the following year.

“I think it’s a really good practice for them to come up with their own ideas and to start researching and to really develop their portfolio,” Moon said. “It really is a good opportunity for them because it prepares them for Advanced Study Ceramics.”

Senior Genevieve Sive has been taking ceramics classes since she first came to Archer in sixth grade. Sive said she has appreciated having opportunities to practice different skills, while also having room to explore her own interests and creativity within less restrictive project requirements.

Sive’s work this year has been leading up to her senior visual arts show called “360°,” which she opened in April. The show displayed ceramic cakes and other pieces that represented the journey from childhood to adulthood and the celebration of those worlds coming together.

“My favorite part of the class this year has probably been making the cakes because it’s something — I had cakes in my art gallery — I’ve never done something like that before, and I had to make them look realistic, which was hard, but it came together,” Sive said. “It’s really fun to do the piping [on the cakes] and use different tools than I have before.”  

For junior Julissa Espinoza, ceramics is a way to express and expand her creativity. She is currently in Advanced Ceramics and plans to take Advanced Study Ceramics her senior year. She said one of the most meaningful projects for her was creating a lamp inspired by nature and the symbol sagrado corazon.

“My favorite project is probably the lamp project just because I feel like that really challenged our creativity,” Espinoza said. “She gave us a prompt, and it was [about] nature … I was inspired by sun rays, so I did a heart lamp with sun rays coming out of it, which I thought was really nice.”

Junior Lila Paschall is in Advanced Ceramics as well, and for her second semester project proposal, she centered her inspiration around nature. Paschall said she has appreciated the independent and enjoyable nature of the class and projects, and she plans to continue her ceramics journey in the advanced study class next year.

“My favorite [part] is probably just the environment,” Paschall said. “Everyone just does their own thing, and it’s nice to have a break from everything else, and I think it’s really fun, too.” 

In a reflection about her independent project, Espinoza said she wrote about how she wanted to more deeply express her identity and culture through her ceramics.  

“I don’t want to make ceramics just to make them because it’s fun,” Espinoza said. “Of course, it’s fun to me, but I also want my ceramics to show my identity or for them to show a part of my culture … to have stuff that’s meaningful to me that other people that share the same traditions or culture as me would be like, ‘Oh, I recognize that’ or, ‘Oh, that makes sense why she did that.'”

As the end of the school year approaches, Moon expressed her pride and gratitude for her students and said she feels their skillset as a group has continued to advance, which has helped encourage and excite younger ceramics students as well.

“I’m really proud,” Moon said. “Overall, the level of their skillset as a group has leveled up compared to the previous years, and I think that’s a really good thing because the standard of the work — a lot of younger students see that … I can see a really positive change even in my intro ceramics classes. When they see the work from students in advanced study, that inspires them.”