Alisa Liskin Clausen ’76

I love this initiative. There are certainly several relationships I have made and cherish, which include faculty who inspired and challenged me, friendships that have lasted decades, the legacy of my mother Madame Liskin who taught French and my nieces Rebecca (Becca) Bonagura Esq. ’02 and Elizabeth (Lizzy) Bonagura ’02 who were the family’s second generation students. During my years, the visual arts were not as celebrated, as I am delighted to see that they are today through so many programs. Faculty such as Gene Wojtyla helped this “art student” to collect thoughts and write well; 10th grade Geometry teacher Elmer Kubi unlocked my fear of math. Art teachers Bob Barsamian, Cornel Ferat pushed my talents through different mediums. I thrived on both their critique and praise. The single relationship from that made a lifelong impact in my life, is actually a relationship that never blossomed. During 1973, I liked a boy who was a year to two older than me. I was of course, fairly invisible to him. I did notice that he was using the potter’s wheel in the art room. I thought, the only way I am ever going to sit next to him is to start using the wheel next to him. The crush did not last, the boy is long gone into adulthood, like myself. That same summer, ´73, I spent every hot and humid day in the pottery studio at alone with one faculty Ann S. Love for clay and glazes has never left me. At I learned diligence. Keep trying. Someone, in my case, faculty, helped me to find a method to unlock what traditional methods had made me afraid of (Math and Chemistry I could not understand from the books). Curiosity and diligence have carried me forward to understanding the alchemy of ceramic glazes, an interest which includes math, science and creative intuition. In 2022 I was invited by NCECA, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, to participate on the panel of Glaze Doctors, an open forum for questions about ceramic glazes. Today I am actively developing ceramic glazes for both my own studio, students, colleagues and databases. Thank you for giving me the first tools to approach something I don’t understand, but want to learn in order to fulfill my curiosity and achieve my goals. A lifelong interest in clay started by a high school crush.