The ceramics center piece sitting in the middle of the library looks as if it belongs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The creative director behind the masterpiece did not always know she was interested in ceramics or even how good she was. Georgie Greenhaus, a junior in Ms. Bolon’s ceramics III class, took ceramics on a whim freshman year. Now, close to the end of her third year in high school she has already started working on her Advanced Placement (AP) portfolio for next year. Titled Positive and Negative, this beautiful sculpture has nothing negative about it and is extremely deserving of Artist of the Month for June.
Greenhaus will be taking AP Ceramics in the fall and gear all of her work towards one concentration.
“We finished our Ceramics III projects so I already started on my AP portfolio, so this is my first piece. Every piece relates to the concentration that we focus on. Mine is negative space, so my other piece that I just did is like Lululemon logo, but it is white and has black crackle in it. It is one of my favorite pieces,” said Greenhaus.
Greenhaus was in a bind at the end of eighth grade and was stuck between Photography and Ceramics. She eventually decided on Ceramics because of her interest with hands on and creative artwork.
“I have a thing for painting and making stuff, so I decided to try it out but I ended up really liking it,”said Greenhaus.
Her most recent and award winning piece took an exuberant amount of planning and time. Positive and Negative is made out of ceramic slabs and glazed by using the sgraffito technique. Sgraffito (in Italian “to scratch”) is a decorating pottery technique produced by applying layers of color or colors (underglazes or colored slips) to leather hard pottery and then scratching off parts of the layer(s) to create contrasting images, patterns and texture and reveal the clay color underneath.
“I painted it with underglaze and let it dry for a couple of days and then I painted it black and then I fired it. I carved through the black and under the black was white and that is how I ended making the design,” said Greenhaus.
Greenhaus does not approach every piece the same way or even with a plan at all sometimes. She looks at other ceramics pieces for inspiration and finds everyday items to use.
“I just kind of wing it and think about the things I have seen before and what kind of shapes I can incorporate into my work,” said Greenhaus.
Based on the work that she has already created, receiving the title of Artist of the Month for June was a no-brainer. There is no doubt that her creations will continue to impress and inspire the audience that gets to gawk at her sheer talent.
