Indianapolis Art Center ceramics instructor, Tim Ryan
Tim Ryan is one of the Indianapolis Art Center’s ceramics instructors. We spent an evening with him in class to find out what makes him so popular with students. See a video of Tim on the Art Center’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/IndyArtCtr.
Q. How would you describe your teaching style?
I’ve been teaching here a shocking 23 years. I had no intention of ever being in one place that long, but there you have it. And it’s still fascinating to me. I’m still taken by surprise by somebody’s idea or somebody’s approach that there’s no reason it wouldn’t work, especially if I give them some technical support. For me, artist and teacher are so wrapped up together. New ideas that I have in my studio will be folded into my teaching. And vice versa.
Both here and at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, any teaching I do really, I try to differentiate instruction. I’m trying to seek out a student’s level and work with them at that level, looking forward to the next one, to bring them up to the next one. Clay is, there’s such a diversity of methods, ideas, it’s just all over the place. That’s why usually in here you’ll see wheel throwing and slab building and sculptural things because I think one informs the other. Any work you’re doing with clay will inform any other type of work you’re doing.
Most folks want to give the wheel a try. Ceramics takes repetition and practice. And changing it from instructions and ideas in your head to a kinetic memory in your hands and body. That’s what the repetition will help do. And that’s what you kind of have to do. You have to know and have a plan and create a structure, but at the same time you have to relax and let the clay be fluid and work those things over and over again so you’re not really thinking about it, so that your hands go where they need to be without having a map in your head.
Q. Describe for us a typical class.
It always depends on what work everybody’s pursuing. Sometimes I’ll be doing demos on the wheel. Other times I’ll being helping somebody with trim in hand-building or slab-building.
The thing I like about my classes is there are so many people going in so many different directions that somebody walking in cold can see a lot of different things right off the bat. The people who take classes here, there’s really something special about them. And everybody in here at one point becomes an instructor. (It’s like) being the leader of a jazz combo and knowing when to let another player solo. And that happens in here.
Q. You’re known for doing a really good job at creating community in your classes. Is that difficult given that all your students are at different skill levels?
Tim Ryan with his Wednesday night ceramics class
We’re always stressing basics. Whether you’re advanced, whether you’re 20 years into it or it’s your first week, the basics still need to be built upon. And it’s always good to review them. As you advance in technique and your ideas it’s easy to lose sight of the basic foundation of the thing and take it for granted. We welcome beginners in here because it’s a good opportunity to take everything down right to the beginning level as if you don’t know anything about clay. “It will no way impede your genius to stress basics over and over again.”
We usually do strive to find a method or approach or technique that suits (each) person. The great thing about these classes, the different backgrounds coming together and everybody has a different approach and looks at it differently usually because of the career they’re coming from. That keeps it fresh.
Everybody in here is very supportive. And it’s a “we’re all in this together” kind of attitude. It just happens that more experienced students wind up giving advice or lending a hand to the beginners. That’s so appropriate. It’s great for anybody to hear things put in a different way, it might be phrased differently than the way I say it. Or it might be done a little bit differently than the way I do it. And that’s fine. We try to encourage everybody to take a sampling of everybody’s approach and that way forge their own.
Tim Ryan's assistant, Darlene
Darlene, Tim’s monitor and assistant in class and at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, shares her thoughts on what makes Tim such a popular instructor.
(The students) are having a lot of fun. All the energy is there in the room. Everybody’s helping everybody. A lot of questions, answers, ‘how’d you do this?’, ‘how’d you get that effect?’ It’s just real fun.
I like working with Tim because of the way the class is constructed. Everybody’s working on their own, whether it’s hand-building or wheel-throwing, there’s all different levels—beginners to advanced. Everybody is helping one another. Advanced students sometimes you forget the basics and so it’s nice to have beginners in the group because you’re hearing Tim centering and all the foundation, wedging, and everything you have to do in centering and opening, once again, said and repeated. Everybody’s like “oh, yeah.” It’s a lot of fun.
In clay, it’s so broad. There’s so many aspects to it. You can spend a lifetime in clay and never get to all of it. So it’s nice in this class to have a little taste and snippet of things.
I’ll get in here and the next time I look at the clock, it’s 9 o’clock. The night just flies by.
Indianapolis is lucky to have a center that offers this type of medium to individuals. There’s not anything in town that does high firing and raku that I know of. Usually it’s for universities. For adults that have always wanted to try something, but were never able to do it or they did it in high school or college and then come back and have a facility like that is a really nice thing.
Q. Why does a ceramics class take so many weeks (15 weeks)?
Any art medium has its challenges. Fifteen weeks (for ceramics) is a nice amount to stretch out into because it is such a process-heavy medium. You form the pieces. They have to dry. They have to get bisque fired. They have to get glazed. They have to get fired again. There’re so many steps in the process that we really need that timeframe to spread out in so that you can at least see your first wave come through. It’s going to be weeks before you actually see the results of the first piece you made and can learn from that and adapt or build on that. So the 15 weeks is very useful.
It’s amazing who comes in on their first night and can center a piece of clay and can center it and pull it. It happens. For some folks, it kind of is that easy for them. But usually it takes a lot of repetition, a lot of practice.
Q. What’s the most common mistake for beginners?
Nobody slips and scores enough usually when they’re hand building. The kids at the Blind School will say, “now I’m going to imitate Mr. Tim. Don’t forget to slip and score.” I probably say it 100 times. That’s something that everyone takes for granted; that’s how we attach parts. That’s the way handles get attached or sculptural elements get attached to each other. Otherwise, it’s all over the map.
It’s kind of fascinating how a rank beginner will do certain things beautifully and other things different from the person next to them. I have a theory that as far as the wheel goes, we all have a form that we throw naturally with doing the least amount of thinking. For some of us, it’s bowls; for others it’s something vertical. You can always tell which one someone is usually.
I think (students’) expectations are as diverse as their backgrounds. Some people have come in and have seen wheel throwing and it looks really easy. So that’s the first shocker—that it’s nowhere as easy as it looks. Some folks are here with specific projects in mind and products that they’d like to produce and others are here for the enjoyment of the process. I think everybody feels that spark from the potential that’s in the creative process, the power that’s there. Even if you’re not sure really what direction you want to take, being involved in that process is very compelling.
A lot of people are going to have a fear of entry into art making just because a lot of people haven’t done it since they were in middle school or high school. We also have some people come in here who are degreed in fine arts as well and want to get back into an art form. On that score, clay is one of the more available doorways for people. I think a lot of people see it as an entry level. It’s a little safer than brush and paint on canvas. It doesn’t seem to be as intimidating to folks.
Tim and 20-25 of his students are exhibiting a selection of their works at the IUPUI Campus Center’s Cultural Arts Gallery. The exhibition, Hands in Clay: Ceramics Works by Tim Ryan and His Indianapolis Art Center Students features about 100 works and runs now through April 29.
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