Arts Student of the Week: Mark Crochiere

If there is one art form Niwot High School senior Mark Crochiere would encourage people to try, it would be ceramics.

"Just try out ceramics," Crochiere says. "It's not for everyone, but you can't find out until you try. It's an intimidating thing to start. But I would encourage people to try it out. You never know." It is a passion he enjoys sharing. According to his art teacher, Beth Collier, "Mark is a very inspiring Advanced Ceramics student. He is so hard working and creative."

From a very early age, Crochiere has been interested in art. "I have ADHD," Crochiere stated, "and it's something that I've been able to fixate on," he said about his art. "And it's been something that's been able to hold my attention for a long time."

Though he tried painting and other forms of art, Crochiere never felt that he was very good at them, but he enjoyed the frame of mind art created. When he began his freshman year he learned about the ceramics class. He knew he was good at working with his hands and thought that since he enjoyed art, there might be some potential for him in the class. And it reeled him in. "Mark has an intrinsic joy for working with clay," Collier said, "and it often permeates the room."

Talking about the work he has done in class comes easily to Crochiere. In the earlier stages of intermediate ceramics, the assignments were very specific. "So it's 'Oh, make a set of four matching mugs,'" Crochiere explained. "You learn how to re-create the same thing on the wheel a couple times, which is a tough skill to learn. But a lot of it is just, 'Okay, your restraints are you have to make, say, a tea kettle, right? Do whatever you want to make that tea kettle, but at the end of the day it has to work like a tea kettle.'"

Crochiere said, "Art is really just a product of your imagination. Yes, there are restrictions for an assignment, but you get a piece of clay, no glaze, nothing, and you just work with that clay until you're as close to what you...wanted it to be. You can even throw on the wheel. You have to center your piece of clay and then you have to pull it up into different things. Hand building, it's really similar to sculpture. But it's different in so many ways as well."

He said the pandemic had a negative impact on his ceramic career. He was taking ceramics his freshman year when the pandemic hit. Soon students had to bring clay home to do their hand-building assignments, "which was a little difficult," Crochiere said. "To find space in my house to do that. But I definitely learned a lot about hand-building through the pandemic."

Collier had students bring their finished pieces in and put them on her cart so there would be no contact. She would then fire the pieces and put them back out on the cart for the students to pick up at a set time.

Those limitations really hit home during Crochiere's sophomore year. It wasn't practical to take an art class because throwing on the wheel was his passion, and Crochiere did not have access to the tools he needed.

When he returned to class, he realized that he had been underestimating his ability as a ceramicist, which became clear this year during a particularly difficult assignment. "I'm not great at making super, super intricate, you know, art first try, every try. But we had this assignment where we had to make a dinnerware set. And that included two small plates, two big plates, the cups-the whole nine yards-for a dinnerware set. And what really surprised me was my ability to throw it as quickly as I did.

"So, we had to create it on a wheel, and I remember I was getting all these weird looks from my classmates, because I had made seven pieces in an hour and 30 minutes. And it really surprised me. And it kind of really reinforced to me that this is something that I want to continue the rest of my life because I seem to have a natural talent for it."

"Mark is a very inspiring Advanced Ceramics student," Collier said. "He is so hard working and creative. Maybe just as importantly, I can honestly say he is a very nice human and so helpful to other students as they struggle to improve on the potter's wheel. He is positive and encouraging to his classmates. He is often just as excited about their projects and ideas as he is about his own. Mark has an intrinsic joy for working with clay and it often permeates the room."

"I think art is not a product of an individual," Crochiere explained. "I don't think it ever could be. I think art is a community, and someone's strength in art is reinforced by that. Obviously, you made your own work, but I don't think anybody could get to their full potential in art without the help of others.

" I consider myself to be pretty good at ceramics, and really noting how much other people have had an influence on that, and how much people have really helped lift me up to reach the skill level that I have, has influenced me to do the same. I see kids who are just starting, and I'm like, 'You could, with a little encouragement, maybe you could be better than me one day. Maybe the best, you know?' And I really want to be a part of that journey for them."