Final Portfolio: Overall Progress

I felt that I grew a lot during this semester in terms of my work with clay. At first was unsure and did not really know what I was doing and I didn't have many ideas of what to make. Throughout the course, however, I think I learned a lot of good technical things that made it easier and made me better at working with the clay and I grew in my ability to develop ideas and apply them. In the beginning I was very engaged with my work and ready to work hard to develop my skills. During and after Unit 2 though, I got a little discouraged because I felt overwhelmed with the semester's work piling up and I lost focus a little bit. Then when we started doing the platters I was more engaged again and with the objects in clay that we made I got excited about building again. By the end of the semester I felt like I really had a rhythm going with my work and I was able to work well and manage my time in an efficient way. What I could have done differently in this course was to work outside of class a little more because I don't feel that I put the full 8 hours in that we were supposed to outside of class. I think the course could be improved in that there could be less units and more time spent on each unit. That way we wouldn't have to feel rushed into doing things. Also, it really helped me to be able to see my classmates' work and I think more critiques during the process of making the things out of clay could have been helpful to me. Also more demonstrations would be helpful. All in all, I think the course went very well and I am glad that I was able to have this experience with art.