The Metaphor ep.2. Teachers

I have been thinking a lot about teachers recently. Without the 'teacher' we are perhaps not lost entirely, but a really good teacher can light up our inner selves, thus opening doors that seemed to be previously invisible. So here is a short homage, a tribute if you will, to my most memorable and important teachers. I would say old and new, but as they live in my head now permanently (particulary their words) I will say perhaps more correctly; of the present.

Graham Rocket.

Graham enabled my first introduction to clay. He was a young man then, I was younger still. He had a 'big uncle' vibe and was patient and gentle beyond imagination with my adolecsent idiocy. Did any clay work get done? Not a great deal if I'm being honest as the female students were a far more interesting preoccupation. However by the end I knew clay and loved it. This was his gift to me. Where is he now? New Zealand -and still teaching I believe.

Klaus Dusselberg

Klaus, the brilliant and cranky genuis. He taught me methods nobody else knows, techniques of finesse and superlative excellence. I found him during a period of intense technical struggle within my own work. He pushed the doors aside and my art flourished. He was cranky for sure, but also had a brilliant sense of humour: a painter of huge talent and originality, and a terrible, irascible gossip. What is he doing now? Harassing the old ladies (and his wife Ingrid) in his weekly classes in Melbourne town, Australia.

My students.

The brave people who open themselves up to being taught something new, usually at a later stage in their lives. We should all do this, there is a wisdom in it. Why my teachers? In the act of teaching you really have to understand your own processes, you make it a thing of authenticity, hopefully through practice. In allowing me, and significantly TRUSTING me to teach them they help me become better. It is also very often the case that they show me new ways of getting things done, not only in technique but in vision, a whole new way of seeing the world. My thanks to them