Summer 1975
My name is Reginald Atkinson, and I am a senior, majoring
the BFA program (Bachelor of Fine Arts) at Xavier University. Because of my
love for ceramics, along with other areas of creativity, I and two of my
(fellow?) (female) classmates (Denise Newman and Julie Romain) were asked if we
would accept the job of putting together a huge ceramic-tile wall. Upon hearing
this question, I joyfully replied, “Certainly, of course, I’d love to,” and at
the same time I told myself, “There goes my whole summer, rats!!!”
Well, despite that, the work was begun about a week after
the Art Department’s year-end show was over. To be exact, it was Monday, May 26th,
when I walked into the building about 9:30 A.M., and there was Mr. Bennett, my
ceramics instructor, and engineer of the entire wall job, already pulling out
the plywood boards upon which the tiles would be placed. I remember Mr. Bennett
“whipping out” his sketchbook with the plan of the placement of the boards, the
length of this one, the width of that one, the height of the whole. I stood
there nodding my head as if I understood all that he was saying, knowing deep
inside, I was as confused as hell – I could be.
The first thing I had to do was make the markings on all
eight of the boards indicating where the 2x6 cedar boards and 1x2 boards would
go. Doing just this simple task took longer than I expected, and I said to
myself, “I know this job isn’t going to end, we’ll be working on it through
eternity.”
After the plywood boards were finally marked and measured,
with the help of my brilliant instructor, we laid all of them flat on tables,
in their correct order, and at that moment as I gazed at 14 square feet of
blank plywood, I wanted to tell Mr. Bennett, “I might not be able to help y’all
after today, I gotta go paint my grandmother’s house.” But I gathered my senses
and said to myself, “It’s not impossible. This wall-job can’t last forever – or
can it?” That was the first day for me on the job. The remaining days of that
week and the weeks to follow would keep us pretty busy and would help me keep my
mind off the seemingly impossibility of doing such a job.
The days between May 27th and June 20th
saw Julie [Romain], Denise [Newman], and myself, not to leave out Mr. “B”, mixing stoneware,
earthenware, and raku clay. Those days saw minutes of tedious wedging to get
the clay at a proper consistency for rolling it out into slabs. There we were
for hours, weeks, pounding, slamming, punching, pressing, rolling clay, this
piece 12”x12”, that piece 18”x22”, make that slab out of raku clay about
14”x18”. Those days found us running back and forth to those plywood boards now
filling up, forgetting what size slabs we had to make, forgetting what design,
what symbol went where, a slab that was there one day and gone the next.
“Didn’t you make that slab, Denise, to go there?”
“Yeah, I’m sure I made it, because I know what designs I put
on it.”
“Julie, what goes next to the justice symbol?”
“It’s that piece I made with the stoneware clay. It’s in two
parts.”
I remember many afternoons, with the temperature in the high
80s, listening to the radio Mr. Bennett would bring, two fans constantly
humming, blowing its sometimes cool, sometimes warm air on us. I remember some
mornings, each of us silent, in our own little world, rolling out a slab,
sitting down quietly laboring over a particular design, occasionally humming or
singing along with the songs on the radio. I think back and see us laughing at
a joke somebody said, or laughing at something funny one of us did, all the tie
contently working on another slab.
I remember afternoons when our faces were wet with sweat,
running back and forth checking the temperature of the kiln, while the pieces
were inside glowing fiery hot. The joy that filled us when our first pieces came
out of the firing the next day, the smiles on our faces, knowing that we were a
bit closer to the final steps. I can easily remember when we saw all the pieces
fired and laying on the tile boards, everything in its right place. I can
easily remember the ecstasy of our successful raku clay firings, the beauty of
those pieces, gleaming in the sunlight.
I think it’s time for me to close up on these reflections.
I’m beginning to sound like a poet, which I am not! But every moment of all
those days I spent working on this project were delightful moments, a new
experience, a fragment, a fraction more of knowledge gained, also learning to
live and work in harmony with others, a very essential quality. Now the job is
almost complete. All the pieces are up, the wall itself is up in its place in
the chapel, and the only thing left to do is to fill in the areas left around
the pieces.
It was pure fun working with Mr. Bennett, Julie and Denise,
Mr. [John] Scott, Timothy [McGary] and Jane [Wallace], Michael [Russer] (also members
of the art department who contributed their time and effort to the job), and
last but not at all least, Father Moses Anderson, for if it were not for him,
we would have never had the job. I thank all of these people who have played a
part in my life, to make the job which I thought was impossible a reality. I’m
glad I was a part of it all. These have been reflections.
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