by Greg Busceme Sr.
Executive Director of The Art Studio, Inc.
I have been in the arts community for 46 years. Most of those years were spent listening and observing the strange and wonderful world of Art. I didn’t start to think about creating art when I got into clay. I was drawn by the novelty of free electives and a chance to do something different. There was a lovely young lady who was also taking the class. During the semester I was so excited that my professor, Jerry Newman, said I might make good pottery. Not great, or amazing but, maybe good. This motivation was enough to alter my life-course and take a U-turn on the road to the straight and narrow. You must understand that the last time a teacher said I did something well was in 8th grade when a teacher said I wrote pretty good poetry. That was good enough for me to make a mini career out of writing poetry – I was Editor of the university Pulse magazine at Lamar English Dept. for three issues. When I took that clay class I was hooked. Wrote my last poem and turned my sights to clay. When class ended I quit school, bought the necessary equipment, most of which I still have, and began to practice the craft of which I was seemingly so gifted.
Life can be funny! Not funny HA-HA but funny strange. I set up in a breakfast nook in my house on Elgie street and began my ceramic journey. My Brent wheel at the ready I took out some clay and threw it on the wheel head and commenced to “throw”. I realized then that I had a shot of beginner’s luck! Ultimately, I didn’t know jack**** about clay or glazes and I hadn’t even seen a kiln fired nor was I able to produce the ware needed for the firing. At that moment my head felt as if it would explode, a cold sweat broke out and a queasy feeling rebelled in my gut!
“What have I done? What am I doing?”
As expected, my first two years were rife with self-doubt, worry, and questioning my very life choice, Clay. I could have walked away and sold my new equipment and got a nice car and worked an 8 to 5. But something inside of me said ‘not yet’.
Fear of Failure will make you fail faster than anything. Self-fulfilling prophecies abound in the creative community, and I was facing the struggle to stay at it or give up. I sat at the wheel and tried. Again. And again. And again. And again. Slowly things started to look like something other than a blob of clay. I made bottles and bowls and mugs, awkward and heavy but I was producing. At a street fair where I was doing my first demonstration (and not too well at that) I met Sandra Laurette who directed me to Lamar University and clay instructor Butch Jack. All things changed for the better.
A few years of isolated struggle can open your eyes to what you don’t know. I have had a whole bunch of “I don’t know” that I was looking to change and my time at Lamar Art Dept. was the perfect place. In a few years I was on my way to graduate school. A couple of years after that I was back in Beaumont with an MFA and ready to start The Art Studio.
That U-turn was the most important decision I ever made. Although there was no clear path, I knew something wonderful was at the end of it. And I was right. But this is not a brag story; I still struggle with self-doubt, and I think a little keeps you driving forward, but too much and you will burn out.
My point is: you will see others’ work that will blow your mind and you will question your own work and why you are here, but you don’t know what the future holds! Following your passion is a special path that has many crossroads. Art is your compass. The growing skills and dedication you devote to your art is your journey. It is a competitive business and each of us race to be the best we can be, but work at your own speed. We all run our own race. It is a race against yourself and we can set our own pace. Knowing that lets me sleep at night and sit at that old wheel and see what strange things will come from my hands.