olivia lepenske
Artist Statement
Throughout my life, I have been the striving perfectionist that brainstorms, expecting them to carry out just as planned. As I walked into that ceramics room four years ago, it soon became one of the only places I felt comfortable making mistakes in. As my hands took the reins of the clay, my overwhelmed and constant brain therapeutically slowed as the perfectionist within me dissolved, leaving me alone with the clay and my deep-rooted thoughts. With the constant need for perfection and order, the seemingly effortless control I had on the slippery medium made me feel comfortable in my changing environment of highschool and youth. I have learned that everyone is somehow labeled, whether it be at home or on a social scale at school. Being in ceramics made me for the first time feel creative, confident, and unlabeled, which made me ultimately feel myself because I was combining labels that I didn’t know I possessed. Throughout my time in the ceramics room these four years, I have slowly gained and found another piece to my identity puzzle that I didn’t know I needed that makes my life feel more wholesome through my ability to express my mess of my surroundings through art. Each year, I gained additional self-confidence, something I often lacked but was good at pretending, in my ability to take risks with the material that would reflect in my decisions in life. After mastering my ability to make shapes, my pieces grew and started to revolve around meaning and taking something I felt passionate about and sculpting a figure that resembled my imagination. Long story short, my work reflects individual growth. The risks I take in the classroom illustrate the risks I am taking outside of it. As my pieces grow more and more personal, it exemplifies my comfort in getting in touch with my deeper-rooted emotions. My work doesn’t need to be functional. Instead, I use art to make sense of topics and situations in my head that I don’t know how to express with words. To understand things I struggle to comprehend, I use art as my outlet to create a physical portrayal of my mind. Through the noise of the media and high school these past four years, my ceramics class has been a place of personal growth that has shaped me into a confident woman who takes risks. It’s a sacred space I have outside of home that mutes the noise and powers my serenity.
Throughout my life, I have been the striving perfectionist that brainstorms, expecting them to carry out just as planned. As I walked into that ceramics room four years ago, it soon became one of the only places I felt comfortable making mistakes in. As my hands took the reins of the clay, my overwhelmed and constant brain therapeutically slowed as the perfectionist within me dissolved, leaving me alone with the clay and my deep-rooted thoughts. With the constant need for perfection and order, the seemingly effortless control I had on the slippery medium made me feel comfortable in my changing environment of highschool and youth. I have learned that everyone is somehow labeled, whether it be at home or on a social scale at school. Being in ceramics made me for the first time feel creative, confident, and unlabeled, which made me ultimately feel myself because I was combining labels that I didn’t know I possessed. Throughout my time in the ceramics room these four years, I have slowly gained and found another piece to my identity puzzle that I didn’t know I needed that makes my life feel more wholesome through my ability to express my mess of my surroundings through art. Each year, I gained additional self-confidence, something I often lacked but was good at pretending, in my ability to take risks with the material that would reflect in my decisions in life. After mastering my ability to make shapes, my pieces grew and started to revolve around meaning and taking something I felt passionate about and sculpting a figure that resembled my imagination. Long story short, my work reflects individual growth. The risks I take in the classroom illustrate the risks I am taking outside of it. As my pieces grow more and more personal, it exemplifies my comfort in getting in touch with my deeper-rooted emotions. My work doesn’t need to be functional. Instead, I use art to make sense of topics and situations in my head that I don’t know how to express with words. To understand things I struggle to comprehend, I use art as my outlet to create a physical portrayal of my mind. Through the noise of the media and high school these past four years, my ceramics class has been a place of personal growth that has shaped me into a confident woman who takes risks. It’s a sacred space I have outside of home that mutes the noise and powers my serenity.