Kelleher, MattWillard, AderoBrown, CoryPoklop, Natalie2022-07-052022-07-052022-05-06http://hdl.handle.net/10829/24825Thesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Alfred University Honors Program.Through the past four years, ceramics has gone from a practice to ease my mind to a practice that activates it. I have begun to question what motivations drive me to do ceramics and what need it fulfills in my life. I have asked myself: What does it mean to be in control? Is it I or the material around me that has the power in decision making? Who has control when viewing an object? I constantly wrestle with my primal need for complete control, with clay being a medium that allows me very little of it. I find myself battling for control at the pottery wheel or through the firing of a wood kiln. In these instances, I need to ask myself how control will benefit the outcome. I work to challenge my belief that control leads to quality work. I am learning to understand how moments of uncertainty and giving into unknown outcomes is what can lead to my own creative satisfaction. Throughout my thesis work, I have used the idea of light to process this need for control and learned to find the intersection between fighting for control and embracing the unplanned.en-USHonors thesisCeramicsFossilizationPhotographyThesis