Tutor inspires the community

Tutor Anamica Chauhan-Vince gets real satisfaction from bringing the best out of learners and helping others. She is an experienced and talented pottery and clay work artist who has been teaching her craft since May 2015 at our Guildford and Woking Centres.

Her inspiration to become an artist stemmed from her youth and she was lucky to make a dream reality. Anamica received her first instruction in India from a well-known studio potter, studying wheel work, slab, pinching and coiling methods. She benefitted from international influencers, from India, Italy USA, Canada, and Australia. She travelled to Dublin and worked on the potter's wheel at the famous Colm De Ris pottery.

The breakthrough in her art took place during her internship in Bali where she attended training workshops and immersed herself in crafting her skill and refining her talent. The techniques involved in working clay are meditative and calming and many learners find this art good for wellbeing. She said, "the more you teach the more you learn, and you inspire your learners."

Anamica is a keen volunteer and the Coronavirus outbreak has resulted in a community project where Anamica has joined forces with a local arts charity called Team Imagineers. Their goal is to create a commemorative art installation of a thousand handmade clay hearts as a symbol of gratitude to the heroism and courage of key workers during lockdown. Sometimes, unlikely artists have discovered pleasure and satisfaction creating clay hearts. The handmade hearts are personalised by the local community to thank key workers for their selfless bravery in the fight against Covid-19. Currently the project has resulted in one art installation in a London hospital and Team Imagineers are working towards a further artwork in another hospital. Team Imagineers decided to set up the project to support community interaction during lockdown and have successfully linked together residents of Surrey and London as one, standing together in the face of adversity.

SAL learners have benefitted from an opportunity to work with clay donated by Team Imagineers. Anamica has carefully prepared boxes of materials with instructions. For some people this has been a positive taster experience and we are hopeful to see new joiners on SAL courses very soon!

Anamica has a lively Instagram page where she shares her art and ideas with learners and kindred spirits. She can be found under the name of @anna_potternomad on Instagram.