I am a dentist. I happened upon pottery purely by chance, but once I entered the world of clay, I couldn't believe my luck.Here was a medium that allowed me to make something out of nothing, my imagination being the only limiting factor.
The precision and technique of throwing on a wheel to create perfectly centered bowls and vases speaks to my scientific mind, which is very much at home with concepts like center of gravity and compression strength. Seeing a perfectly shaped bowl form under my hands instills in me a sense of peace.
Then there is the art of hand building and sculpture, where I truly find myself in my element. The ability to make something outside the confines of the wheel is absolutely fascinating to me. The process of first visualising what I want to make, then evaluating the materials at hand, understanding their strengths and limitations and finally trouble shooting ways to use those materials in conventional and sometimes unconventional ways to achieve my objective is when I feel the most fulfilled. This is what I do at work- I am presented with a problem and then using the resources at hand, I find a workable solution. In dentistry as in art, when the result is a thing of beauty that brings joy to the beholder, that is the icing on the cake for me.