For those who cannot quite find the right creative outlet here at Tufts, Boston offers unlimited opportunities for artistic expression. The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA) is a popular venue, one which senior Mikko Silliman has been visiting every weekend for the past five semesters.
Although he had never considered making ceramics before coming to Tufts, he decided to try his hand at the art.
“I’ve always been curious — what are ceramics?” he said. “I started my spring semester freshman year, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Immediately hooked on the craft, Silliman continued to register for the SMFA’s introductory ceramics class, which meets at 9 a.m. every Saturday morning.
Silliman is also currently collaborating with a woodworker friend to create two full chess sets. He explained that, in addition to the physical creation, the real draw of making ceramics is the ability to get lost in his own thoughts during the process.
“It’s so meditative in the morning when you have just one thing to focus on,” he said. “It is also really satisfying to use something you’ve made — like eating cereal out of a bowl I just created or playing chess. They’re the perfect gifts since I ... have no place to keep [everything I make].”
Silliman’s artistic prowess extends further than cups, bowels and vases: the economics major has also dabbled in jazz and folk music.
Silliman has some advice for those considering taking up ceramics (or any art, for that matter): “The more you make and practice, the better you get,” he said. “But I have to focus on quality over quantity.”
