 Once students at Central Lakes College complete the general arts courses offered at the school, they're offered a semester of independent study to develop their own class plan. For this week's in-focus, Mal Meyer went to Brainerd to talk with artists about their work being featured at the discoveries in ceramic exhibit. The four artists, Daniel Trong, Ivy Dimbosky, Tegan Maloney and Lynn Barowitz, started the semester with a little bit of research. I was looking actually at Japanese pottery and Chinese and they do a lot with the blues and whites and a lot of nature scenes. And drew from their experiences to create these one-of-a-kind pieces. I like making pottery for utilitarian uses, so I've made a lot of dish sets, a lot of bowls and mugs. While most of the works on display are plates and bowls, Daniel Trong took more of a hands-on approach. I just like hands and eyes so like one day I just look at my hands and I was like, I need sculpture for the class so I'm just gonna build my hand. But even with the most skillful of hands, ceramics are unique in that the glazes blend in ways that simply cannot be anticipated or duplicated. Like for this part right here, like I was basically just praying and hoping that the this glaze wouldn't drip all the way down to the bottom. Which can be a little frustrating. It doesn't get really frustrating at first when you're trying to learn, but like once you push through that it's just it's amazing and it's you're really proud of yourself when you see the stuff that you can make. While Trong wishes he would have had more time, he hopes that people see the emotion in his finished pieces. For this hand right here, so the hand is kind of grabbing to like a fist. So that means that that I have to like stay strong and be tough. The Discoveries in Ceramics student exhibit will be free and open to the public from Monday through Friday 10 to 5 p.m. now through April 21st. In Brainerd with this week's in focus, I'm Mel Meyer, Lakeland News. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.