Please do not touch. Please stand at least 10 feet away. No flash photography. All very commanding words that cover museum walls and signs, taunting viewers to take surreptitious glances around before reaching out their little finger to rebel and poke an ancient masterpiece.

At the Johnson for the second time in a week, I found my visit to the Johnson for the sculpting workshop to be enlightening. We took a tour of Pre-Colombian sculptures, of where I made the observation that the Johnson did not have many of these “do not touch” signs around. Instead, the glass walls that encased the pieces of art were more transparent in their messages for nosy students and wandering fingers.

The reason I mention this is because I learned an important fact about making art during the sculpture making portion of the workshop. As obvious as it may sound, working with clay and sculpting is difficult to do well, and I can see that it takes incredible practice. This becomes painfully clear when your piece is not architecturally sound, refuses to stand up properly, or refuses to stick together. At this point in time, the “please do not touch” signs that would surround it if it somehow made it into a museum should be more properly phrased “please do not breathe, sneeze, or cough” since the piece will collapse. Despite my initial frustrations, I did construct a small bowl shaped as a fish, and found this workshop to be incredibly fun and paradoxically relaxing. I find that these events that provide the perfect opportunity to create have been very enjoyable for me in, and hope that they continue.