{"id":28435,"date":"2023-10-20T10:09:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=28435"},"modified":"2023-10-20T10:47:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:47:22","slug":"furman-fellow-boosts-peers-well-being-through-ceramics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-fellow-boosts-peers-well-being-through-ceramics\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman Fellow boosts peers’ well-being through ceramics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throwing a lump of clay onto a potting wheel and forming it into a bowl or a vase can be almost as transformative to the potter as the clay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes things feel more in balance in my life,\u201d said Jake O\u2019Connor \u201924. \u201cIt\u2019s therapeutic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now he is using a Furman Fellows grant to offer ceramics, painting and other forms of art at the school through a series of outdoor workshops he hopes will relieve some of the stress and anxiety that students often experience.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor said his interest in ceramics began when he attended boarding school as a teenager and needed an art class to fulfill a requirement. Once there, though, he found it calming. During his first year at Furman, ceramics served as a lifeline when the pandemic forced his other classes online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat period of time was potentially when ceramics was most impactful in my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t describe how grateful I was to be able to spend that time in the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process of creating art has many benefits, including stress relief, improved focus and concentration, self-expression and a sense of accomplishment, O\u2019Connor said. It also can help with mental and emotional health, he said, calling it a transformative experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re working on the wheel \u2026 it\u2019s a little hypnotic,\u201d he said. \u201cYou enter a flow state and you\u2019re able to essentially practice centering both of the mind and literally on the wheel. It\u2019s a more meditative, reflective practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project aims to provide participants with access to an artistic experience in a free and stress-free environment where people aren\u2019t conscious about a grade and where their interest is in the act of creation, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Four

Four students participate in one of O’Connor’s pottery workshops.<\/p><\/div>\n

About 25 students participated in each of the two four-hour workshops he\u2019s held so far, some characterizing it as \u201crelaxing,\u201d \u201cmeditative\u201d and \u201cmemorable.\u201d<\/p>\n

And by holding them outdoors, O\u2019Connor hopes they will tap into the connection with nature that sparks creativity. He hopes to offer others in December ahead of stressful final exams and in the spring to take advantage of Furman\u2019s beauty.<\/p>\n

The Furman Fellows program<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Furman Fellows program is among the highest honors bestowed on Furman students and recognizes five seniors based on their accomplishments, contributions and potential. Each receives $10,000 thanks to the philanthropy of Trustee Emeritus Bob Buckman and his wife, Joyce Mollerup. The award is intended to encourage students to pursue their academic, creative and professional pathways.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor\u2019s grant will fund a variety of quality art supplies to provide artistic options. He hopes to demonstrate a need so that something similar might be offered in the future.<\/p>\n

While O\u2019Connor worried that his project might be a long shot for the grant because he hadn\u2019t seen many others related to the arts, he said he found encouragement from Assistant Art Professor Kevin Kao.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t explain how serious of an impact Professor Kao has had on me,\u201d he said. \u201cHe guided me essentially through that first email, saying I could apply for this. He\u2019s been there for me through this entire process.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Kao remembers O\u2019Connor as an enthusiastic student who came to class with a lot of experience on the potting wheel.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was familiar with and quite skilled at throwing,\u201d he said, \u201cand it was really remarkable to see his development happen over that course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"One

O’Connor assist Ben Taylor ’24 during a workshop.<\/p><\/div>\n

What the arts can do<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kao said O\u2019Connor\u2019s project will increase awareness about what the arts can do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for students to realize that there\u2019s capacity for learning a new craft, engaging in the arts that\u2019s not necessarily academic,\u201d Kao said. \u201cAnd students teaching each other, there\u2019s something about that that\u2019s been great.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor, who is a business administration major, hopes to parlay his project into a nonprofit that can share the workshops not only at Furman, but on other college campuses. He was thrilled to receive the grant and thankful for his entire liberal arts and sciences experience at Furman.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurman\u2019s been awesome,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been able to explore a variety of things I\u2019ve been interested in. I don\u2019t know if this opportunity would have been afforded to me anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Throwing a lump of clay onto a potting wheel and forming it into a bowl or a vase can be almost as transformative to the potter as the clay. Ask Furman Fellow Jake O’Connor ’24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":28488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-business-and-accounting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}