Why Andre Pellerin creates ...

Why I Create

I have always wanted to do pottery since I was a kid. When I was living on a farm up in Vermont, I used mud or dirt to make things. Then during my high school year, I was part of a ceramics club--or maybe I took a ceramics class--which I remember very much even though that lasted only a short time. I probably made something like an ashtray for my parents. I have not done any ceramics for a long time after that. But I do believe in fate, because things often happen whether I like it or not.

When I first came to Gallaudet University in the fall of 1976, my advisor asked me what I would like to study. My first response was in the field of art but he told me that I should not study that because I have Usher's Syndrome, a form of genetic deafblindness. My second choice was theater, and once again I was told I should not take up on that either as I would lose my eyesight and that would not be a practical thing to do. In the fall of 1978, friends encouraged me to take a stagecraft course in theater. They knew that I loved theater and that I was good with my hands. I signed up for that course. The first thing my teacher asked was, "Who is André Pellerin?" I raised my hand, and he told me to see him after class. I went up to his desk after class and asked if there was something wrong. He assured me that there was nothing wrong but he had a question. "What is Usher's Syndrome?" I thought, "Oh no, here we go again." I explained what it was and asked him if I should drop the class. Then he said, “No, no, no.” He had been wondering what Usher’s Syndrome was, so he was willing to work with me as long as I was willing to try too. If it didn’t work out, then I could drop the class at the end of the week.

Day by day turned into weeks by weeks, which turned into months and years. I worked in the theater for 24 years after that first day of theater class. During my last three years of my theater life it was becoming harder for me to do my job because I was losing my eyesight, which had become more like a tunnel vision.

During the fall of 1999, there was an announcement about a wheel pottery class taught by Linda Jordan. In my first class at the Washburn Art Building, I was assigned to a wheel. When I first put my hands on that clay on the wheel, something behind my neck clicked as if my subconsciousness woke up and I knew that wheel pottery would be my next major thing in my life. I went to every class and went to the studio during my lunch break almost every day and after work. I was really hungry to learn and made quite a few pots on the wheel, and then I watched Linda load the electric kilns and asked if I could learn that too. I ended up doing that job during my lunch breaks and after work. I would continue to practice and practice, and I signed up for those classes again and again.

In the fall of 2002, I was transferred to the Art Department as their Ceramic Lab, Gallery and Special Collection Assistant. It was a bit hard leaving the theater after 24 years but it was a good thing. And I am still working in the Art Department. And I am still making pots. My biggest dream now is to become a full-time potter. That is my next challenge.