Junior Sarah Swartwout discovered her love and natural talent for ceramics through the experience of multiple art classes and finding her inspiration from the world around her.

Swartwout originally took Art 1 and was motivated to enroll in the ceramics course as her older sisters had, which led her to discovering her passion.

“I’ve always been really creative and excited to try new mediums,” Swartwout said. “Both of my sisters had taken ceramics and I figured I should too. Once we started working on pinch pots in Ceramics 1, I was hooked.”

Art teacher Danielle DeCiero has and continues to be a big influence in Swartwout’s ceramics interest.

“Ms. DeCiero has always pushed me to work hard and to try new things,” Swartwout said. “She convinced me to get over my fear of the [pottery] wheel, and continues to find opportunities for me to express my artistic abilities.”

DeCiero says Swartwout has a great ability to take her inspirations and put them into her work, and believes “she has a great perspective.”

Working hard day in and day out, currently participating in advanced Ceramics, Swartwout persists and pushes herself in order to create a successful piece.

“In Ceramics 2 I started working on the wheel and struggled with learning the techniques immensely,” Swartwout said. “After multiple tries, I finally pulled a bowl off the wheel and saved it. The reason why this is so important to me is because I had realized that wheel throwing was extremely fun, yet super difficult. Even though it wasn’t perfect, I was still very happy with it.”

Gravitating towards the arts, Swartwout hopes to continue her future in ceramics.

“I definitely want to pursue ceramics in the future,” Swartwout said. “I’ve toured MassArt and am very interested in what they offer.”

“[Swartwout] would fit in with that community at MassArt really well…it’s a school for people interested in making, and creating, and they’re inspired and they feel like they need to bring that to fruition in whatever form that is,” DeCiero said.