Our second cohort of GlassRoots Fellows arrived from Newark last week and we are excited to be able to continue our series of blog posts with these talented artists. First up, we have Manny Ogbonnaya. Here’s what Manny has to say about his first couple of weeks at Peters Valley:
“It is day 11 of my time at Peter’s Valley. The switch from the city to the country can do wonders for the mind. This week I am taking a woodworking class, my second one so far, and it has been an amazing experience from day one, watching rough sketches and pieces of wood transform into something tangible and functional. I guess in a way, that is how most art is. It has been really nice to in a way disconnect from the day-to-day routine and pick up a new one solely focused on a singular task.
I truly am excited for the next five weeks; it is quite breathtaking to see how many skills one can pick up in a day. Personally my favorite thing about woodworking is how many little tricks and tools exist. It is a very problem-solving oriented craft, from using the tools that already exist to build the tools you, need to creating the final project, it is quite fascinating. I also really like how many different approaches there are to solving one problem; asking three different people will often provide three different solutions.
It has also been quite the experience meeting so many different people- each week meeting a completely different class- I think only experience can truly prepare a person for that. All in all, it has been great. I am excited for the weeks to come, I believe I will come out of this program a much better person. I am very grateful to GlassRoots and Peter’s Valley for the opportunity.”
