The enviorment that one lives in can have a tremendous effect on a individual. This enviornment not only influences a person physically, but also morally and spiritually that shows in everday actions. Living in the Snoqualmie Valley, I am constantly surrounded by gorgeous sights ranging from the hights of Mount Si, to the depts of the Snoqualmie Falls; so much that i sometimes take these views for granted. That being said, I thought that nature would be a very appropriate theme to work into my surface design and glazes of my projects this semester.
    The projects I have made this semester can be classified into two different subgroups: surface design incoperating nature, and glazes that illustrate nature. Projects that use surface design to show nature are my lidded, teapot, and hand and wheel. These projects use art elements such as positive space, negitive spece, or carvings to show my theme. The other group, glazes, include my choice 1, choice 2, and choice 3 projects. Art elements these projects include are surrealism and realism. My projects this semester are classified into two groups to illustrate nature.
    I created my projects to represent nature by using several different techniques. In my lidded project, I added carvings into the sides of the body to picture a stream of running water. With my teapot, i carved into the sides to give the look of vines to the body and I also added coils around the spout to show additional vines, but to contrast the carvings. Lastly, my hand and wheel project has two handles and two eyes that makes one want to identify it as an animal, but the project has no distinctive features that allow the viewer to do so. Now, switching to my glaze group, my 1st choice project is a picture of the ocean floor with vegitation that grows from the base of the project. My 2nd project uses a surreal glaze to show how nature can seem puzzling to a viewer. The my 3rd choice project shows a picture of two salmons  in water. By using different techniques, such as positive and negitive space, carvings, realism and surrealism, I incorperated nature into my projects.
    The Reason why i chose nature as a theme for this semester, is for many reasons. First, as i was growing up, I always liked to be outdoors to get away from the restricting feeling of being cramped inside. I remember always having an urge to go out into the woods and build projects like a tree fort or bike jumps. The nature in my projects has helped me relive the glory days of when I was more concerned with having fun rather than worrying about my future plans and how i am going to be able to pay for them. Nature has also played an important role in history, especially during the transcententalist era. I decided to work my passion for history into my projects. 
    By using srface design and glazes, i was able to add nature into my projects. I beleive that I have only begun to even scratch the surface of what is able to be accomplished when one works with nature and ceramics. Overall, taking ceramics was definetly one of my better decisions in my high school career. There is nothing better than turning my mind off and letting my creative side take over showing me parts of myself that i have never seen. As my junior year of highschool whines down, I definetly look forward to taking more ceramics in the future.
     

    There are many aspects in one's life that can influence them. These influences often comes from the enviornment in which one lives in. By living in the Snoqualmie Valley, one influence that i am constantly reminded of is nature. And becuase of the abudence amount of nature that i am exposed to daily, I saw fit to choose nature, and how i represent it throught my surface designs and glazes, as my advanced ceramic theme.
        I used different techniques in my projects to show aspects of nature. Projects that use surface design to illustrate nature are my lidded, teapot, and hand and wheel. These projects used 3 dimensional elements to bring nature to plain and other wise boring projects. The other projects that show nature are through thier glazes. This includes my theme choice, theme choice 2, and theme choice 3 projects. I show nature in my projects through the surface details as well as though glazes.
    I gave these projects a nature feel to them by using mulitple artistic elements. For my surface designs i used carvings, negitive space, and positive space. My hand and wheel has boh positive and negitive space with the coils along the sides and holes at the top. My teapot has carvings on the body and lid. Also the roots along the spout display positive space. And lastly my lidded project has carvings on the sides of the vase to show a running stream of water. Now, the projects that do not use surface design to show nature, uses glaze. My 1st choice project shows the ocean floor and vegitation that grows at the bottom. My 2nd choice project with its surreal glazes, show how nature is not whats expected. And lastly my 3rd choice project shows fish swimming in water. My projects use surface design and glazes to display nature.
    I chose the theme of nature for mulitple reasons. For one, the Snoqualmie Valley is a beautiful place because of the surrounding nature. it would be a crime to not incorperate this into my artwork. Another reason is natures role in history, such as the transcndentalist movements. And Lastly, becuase of my own personal expierences with nature, where it was a safe place for me to go to clear my head and relax.
     By using surafce design and glazes to show nature in my artwork, i can only see how much more oppertunity there is to incorperate it even more. By doing so, I think that anyone will be able to take thier skill and elevate it to the next leve becuase of the vast oppertunities that nature presents. By nature always being a place for inspiration for artists, i believe that the best is only yet to come. 

I. Theme
Nature
- in terms of how i incorperated nature into my projects through surface design and glazes
- how i used positive and negitive space to show nature in my projects
- how when i did not use surface design, i used certain colors and glazing techniques to show nature

II What
- my lidded, teapot and hand and wheel use surface design
- my theme choice 2, theme choice and theme choice 3 all use glazes instead of surface texture to illustrate nature

III How
- through coils and negitive space on my wheel altered, carvings and a handle on my teapot, and carvings and a lid on my lidded project; nature is shown
- with certain colors and pictures like the ocean floor on my theme choice, the surreal look that nature can represent by my theme choice 2, and fish swimming in the ocean in my theme choice 3 project

IV Why
I chose this theme for many reasons. For one, nature is all around us. By living in the Snoqualmie Valley we are exposed to nature much more than people in metropolitian areas. Another reason is the role nature has played in history such as in the transcendental movements. And lastly, becuase of my personal expierences with nature as a place to escape to and clear my head.

V Conclusion
Although this is my second semester of ceramics, i have only begun to realize how theme can play into one's artwork, perticulary nature. Also, how theme can influence a project before the project is even created by the surface design or the glaze.

I have chosen my final theme to be nature. I will blend and incorperate nature into my pieces as best i can through glazes and texture.

For my theme, I have decied to incorperate nature into my projects. While, i have determinded that nature will play a dominante role, i have not decided if more specific elements of nature like only the ocean, or only the forest will take priority over the other.