Artist of the Week: McKenzie Decker
McKenzie Decker, a junior at Warwick Valley High School, is passionate and driven in the world of ceramics and shows it by often spending her lunch time and study period in the ceramics room working on her projects to perfect them.
McKenzie completed about 13 projects in Ceramics I and II during her sophomore year. She has created everything from a sunflower bowl to Santa Claus and even a bear sitting on a box of honey.
“McKenzie showed a lot of interest in ceramics beyond class time,” said Nicole Sisco, McKenzie’s art teacher. “She set a goal for herself every time and said, ‘OK, this is what I want to create, now I have to put in the work to get there.’”
Where does she gain inspiration for her projects? Pinterest. McKenzie’s carefully curated Pinterest boards are her main source of inspiration when looking for different pieces to create.
“I have a whole board of things I want to do,” she said. “I would just do whichever one I thought was cool.”
She also thinks about how her pieces will look displayed in her home.
One common design in her art is the use of sunflowers. They are her favorite flower. She says they often have a recurrence in her pieces, but she tries to branch out and try something different every time.
“My favorite part of the process would definitely be making the pieces with clay,” McKenzie said. “I love working with it and making it into a piece.”
Often, McKenzie begins her process by sketching what her piece will look like.
One of her more difficult pieces was a bowl covered in tiny balls where she used the “score and slip” method to attach each individual ball. Scoring and slipping is a technique using water and clay. Scoring means to scratch marks on the surface of the clay. This makes the surface rough and acts like a velcro to help the clay stick together. Slipping means applying a watery liquid clay to the scored surface. The slip acts like a glue to hold the two pieces together.
“I would score the bowl and then slip with water and clay,” McKenzie said. “And then I’d stick the balls on. Then you’d have to smooth the edges, and then add the next one.”
“I rolled out every single one of those balls,” she said with a laugh. “I was here (in Ms. Sisco’s room) every day during lunch. At one point I was like, ‘Ms. Sisco, I don’t know if I can do this,’ but when I finally finished, Ms. Sisco wouldn’t let me take it home yet because she wanted to put it in the art show (the district wide annual art show) we had at the end of the year.”
Most of her pieces incorporate the use of hand building which McKenzie tends to prefer over using the wheel.
“3D art is special because it’s unique, decorative, and functional,” said Ms. Sisco. “There are some students who gravitate towards the wheel but McKenzie happens to be a hand builder and she’s done some really unique pieces with that.”
Hand building is a bit more tedious and involves lots of slipping and scoring in order to attach different pieces. Temperature and moisture are some factors that can affect the outcome of the piece making it a little less consistent than using the wheel.
As McKenzie learned and grew her techniques, she reflected on why she chose ceramics.
“It honestly came out of nowhere but I love doing it,” she said. “Which is why I’m in Sculpture I this year, because I knew there was going to be some element of ceramics in it.”
Sculpture I is a new course at WVHS this year and both McKenzie and Ms. Sisco are looking forward to what McKenzie will create throughout the class.
“McKenzie always pushes the boundaries a little bit and I admire students like that,” Ms. Sisco said. “I like when they think outside the box and experiment with what they can create on their own.”
While art may just be a hobby for now, McKenzie is still exploring her passions and interests and is thinking about pursuing a career in the medical field. But, for now, she’s taking it one step at a time and seeing what the future holds.
“I think that McKenzie will continue to be a creative person and create and be passionate and driven in everything,” Ms. Sisco said. “She’ll appreciate art and look at things differently because that’s what ceramics does. It makes you open your eyes to things that are hand built or thrown on the wheel and it makes you appreciate that in a whole new lens.”
