Personal Narrative: The Pottery

The strange thing about growing up in northern California is the unseen but ever present division in the culture. On one side there is the staunch conservative blue collar, countered by a large population of liberal free spirits. During my sophomore year at Eureka Senior High I had realized, and given into my passion for pottery. I excelled at the art. Opportunities to begin selling pieces arose early in the process, then increased over a short period of time. Undenounced to me this caught the eye of the local potter’s guild. I was approached and persuaded to consider joining the local potter guild, but at that age it my parent’s endorsement. The initial conversation with my parents went as I would have expected. “Hell no, you are not going to be spending any more time with those hippies than you already have to.” “What would people think about you becoming an artist?” Although both responses were expected, these were statements rather than a conversation between three people. I walked away dejected, and unfortunately growing up in Humboldt County, I would have expected nothing less. I understood their opinions and respected them to a point, but contrary to their thoughts and pre conceived ideas, the guild was a collective of individual artists trying to facilitate and market the production …show more content…
He explained that he knew many artists over his years of living in that community that flipped burgers because they couldn’t peddle their craft. I convinced my dad to come meet a few people who were members and at least here them out. I padded my chances by asking a few of the more redneck, blue collar members of the guild to assist me with my pitch. Both guys he met were production potters, artists that mass produced their one off dinner sets, coffee cups, and vases to make money. These two would have fit in at any diner that the loggers and other blue collar members of our community would