Clay Beginning Wheel Throwing
Date: Sunday, October 20th
This workshop is structured in 30-minute sessions from 9am to noon.
Up to 3 individual spots are available every 30 minutes.
Location: The Turquoise (Corner of 3rd East and Main) Bluff, UT
Participants must be at least 12 years old.
Beginning Wheelthrowing Russell Kahn
This workshop will introduce beginners or those at an intermediate level to wheel throwing with clay. All the steps of wheel throwing will be focused on – centering, opening up (setting the base), pulling the walls up, and finally shaping. Workshop participants will be given a piece they made to take or it can be photographed and then recycled.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
I have traveled full circle creating and teaching art for the past 32 years in the Southwest and New England. I enjoy being part of my local community as well as globally. My roots growing up were in New York City and Cincinnati, Ohio. My parents all emigrated to America from other countries. My mom was from Tel-Aviv, Israel, my Dad from Capetown, South Africa, and my Step Mom from Innsbruck, Austria. All of these places and cultures helped shape who I am today and how I see the world. I received my 120-credit studio diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and my K-12 teaching certificate through Tufts University in Medford, Mass. While teaching art in Chinle, AZ, on the Navajo reservation I received my Master in Arts degree from Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado. I then moved to Tucson, Arizona and taught art in Sells,AZ at Baboquivari High School on the Tohono O’odham reservation. After that, I switched gears and taught elementary art in Vail School district at Desert Willow Elementary School. In 2003, it was time to go from the frying pan to the ice box and my family and I moved to mid-coast Maine. I taught art at 4-6 different schools in and around Belfast, Maine followed by the next 13 years at Camden High School. I returned to the Southwest in 2020 in part due to the pandemic to teach at Monument Valley High School in Kayenta, AZ for 2 years.
Currently, I am living in Tucson and teaching part-time at Desert Sage High School, Tucson Clay Co-op, and The Drawing Studio. I enjoy exploring the arts in many different media but absolutely love printmaking, drawing with my sharpie, creating soft and oil pastel paintings, and working with ceramics, both wheel throwing and hand building. My philosophy of art education is that everybody can express themselves through the arts, no matter what age or background. I enjoy facilitating my students through the processes of the creative arts and helping them realize that their voice and risk taking is the most important thing about the arts.