This year, during the annual homecoming festivities, you may have noticed a large, bulbous pot, embracing the homecoming spirit. The pot demonstrates the ingenuity and excellence of the Flint Hill Ceramics program. Flint Hill junior John Calhoon created the pot and is currently enrolled in AP 3D Studio.

During his time at Flint Hill, he was first introduced to the Ceramic program, enrolling in the class freshman year. Since then, along with many of his colleagues, he has been heavily involved in the ceramic-making process in AP 3D. At the beginning of the year, and when planning for what he wanted to achieve for his pottery, Calhoon said, “I wanted to make larger pots, possibly six or ten feet tall…I thought it could be really interesting to make a pot on a larger scale”. 

Many of us ask the question, why clay? Clay is an essential aspect of creative art, and can be almost anything related to ceramics. As upper school ceramics teacher Julia Cardone points out, “Contemporary ceramics today can be performance art, installation art, narrative, conceptual, figurative, [and more].” Ceramics inspires the creation of a unique message through the artistic medium. As an example, senior Audrey Powell enjoys the way ceramics allows her to communicate a certain theme.  “I’ll be making pinwheels that represent childhood and my sense of childhood wonder,” she said.

Similarly, The Homecoming pot symbolizes the spirit of Homecoming, and the creativity inspired in Ms. Cardone’s classroom every day. Throughout the picture, you can see carvings and messages etched into the surface of the pot, a symbol of the living Husky pride at Flint Hill.

I commend the ceramics students, and Ms. Cardone, for the excellent program she has inspired and taught at Flint Hill.