My journey in the arts began in 6th grade when I joined a dance crew. I have continuously exposed myself to art forms like graffiti, photography, and dance. High school further solidified my love for the arts as I took drawing & painting, photography, and ceramics. Through all my  experiences with different forms of art, ceramics have stuck with me the most. Ceramics has allowed me to create functional and decorative pieces that reflect my person. My experiences with the arts have given me much knowledge for my future success. I will forever hold the utmost essential lessons of patience and trusting the process. Patience and trust can create the most beautiful designs, as I have learned through art. 

I wanted to create a piece that related not only to myself but to the broader spectrum. I began to think about all issues and problems I have encountered, leading to a continuous theme– losing time. I began sketching out how time felt as if someone would describe a physical form. After that, I wedged my clay to prepare to build my piece. I had to begin by rolling out slabs and cutting them into circular shapes to create the shape of a clock. I started with a circular slab in the back and then slipped and scored rectangular slabs on top of my base to act as the band on a clock. I topped off the shape of my piece by adding the front circular slab to create a clock shape. After creating the basis of my piece, I had to add the details to bring life, and the "clock feel" to it. I began this process by adding the clock hands derived from a slab cutout I made and then the clock applique numbers. The next step was to add the clock legs to hold up my clock. I had to create two short and sturdy coils that would be big enough to support my piece but also small enough to match the size of my clock. I cut those at an angle so they would lay on surfaces better. After I cut out the clock numbers, I underglaze the clocks 10-6 with black. I then created stencils that I could use to carve out designs onto the face of my clock of women spending time working to create an almost silhouette design. I then added slipped and scored an applique of a woman and a baby on her back on the clock's 6-9 hours.

I created the bells last by creating pinch pots that I later carved out to create a lighter bell. I also rolled coils to serve as the bell attachment pieces. I then created 3D pieces of only the women in the different scenes of her working to glaze glue onto the 10-6 of my piece. Finally, I let it dry out and completed the first firing. I used clear glaze to create a glossy look on the black underglaze of my piece. I used red to cover the back and band of my clock. I used the sponge technique to get a sunset appearance in the 6-9 of my clock by using red, orange, and yellow. I then mixed glazed a metallic grey with a rustic brown to get the right rustic color for my clock legs and bells. I used a rustic brown for my clock hands. Finally, I used rustic brown, grey, and orange to make a rustic appearance on my clock numbers. 

As an artist, I wanted to highlight how much of our personal “clocks” are spent at work as a collective rather than doing the things that are important to us. I have seen my two hardworking parents breaking their backs working to provide for my family, all while their few hours of personal time is spent feeling exhausted. Our capitalist economy discards the working-class family’s mental health as it leaves no time for intrapersonal cultivation. This running theme is seen throughout my entire piece. The red color serves as a reflection of the anger of the battle between work and life. The black color from 10-6 o’clock represents the dullness of our working hours, draining our light. That same draining of life is causing the color of the clock numbers to begin to rust from their original color. There is a fleeting moment of warmth from our paradise in all that dullness. The paradise that fills our lives with the beautiful colors of an Arizonian sunset. We fight to keep our paradise, fighting against time, clenching onto the rope preventing the clock from striking another minute. The disparity in the time allotted to us creates an imbalance of our bells, creating tension in the rope wrapped around the bell, breaking our efforts to stop a minute from passing by. The black clouds formed around the warm colors show the void in our working life that still seeps into our paradise, reminding us there is only one way to live.

There are a few things I would change from my piece if I could.  I would change the rusting color that was incorperated to different parts of my piece. I wish I had incorperated more orange to create a more realstic rusting effect. I would also change the feet of my piece. I feel I could have changed the shape of them to make them more suppoting for my clock.